Targeting younger voters helps Pakatan Harapan clinch Johor

Winning 18 parliamentary seats or more in Johor would have been ideal for Pakatan Harapan (PH), but grabbing 14 out of 26 seats will do for now, said the coalition’s winning Tebrau candidate Jimmy Puah.

- Zaihan Mohamed Yusof

Reaching out to residents and younger voters “had surely helped us gain a bit”, said Mr Puah, a lawyer and Johor vice-chairman for Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), a key component in PH.

Of PH’s campaign messaging promising a caring government free of corruption if it gets the mandate, he said: “I think the younger voters do get it. But at the same time, I don’t think they’ll automatically vote for us because there’s another political alliance (Perikatan Nasional) who is also saying the same things.“

The PH alliance, which includes the Democratic Action Party (DAP), may have fallen short of the 18 seats it was aiming for in Johor but Mr Puah said he was proud that the state had, for a second time, become a PH fortress, especially in South Johor.

PH held 11 of the state’s 26 seats before Parliament was dissolved.