The Malaysian Insight

THE 2022 general election is setting all manner of records. It has the most number of candidates in history at 945, and the highest number of Independents (108). It also has a record 39 parties participating in the race.

This is also the first time a large number of states are not holding their state elections at the same time as the federal polls, for various reasons. Only Pahang, Perlis and Perak are set to go to the polls on November 19.

There are also a record number of multi-cornered fights. Among the 222 federal seats, only nine, all of them in Sabah and Sarawak, will see straight fights. 

The battle for the Batu parliamentary seat in Kuala Lumpur is the most crowded with 10 candidates vying to become the people’s choice. Four of them are Independents, including the seat’s former MP, Tian Chua.

The incumbent P. Prabakaran (Pakatan Harapan) won this seat as an Independent in the last general election with the support of Tian Chua and PKR, which he subsequently joined.

PKR veteran Tian Chua was disqualified from contesting in GE14 due to a RM2,000 fine for insulting the modesty of a police officer.

The relationship between Tian Chua and Prabakaran deteriorated after the latter defeated the former to become the PKR Batu division chief in party polls early this year.

Others in the race are A. Kohilan Pillay (Barisan Nasional-MIC), Azhar Yahya (Perikatan Nasional-PAS), Wan Azliana Wan Adnan (Gerakan Tanah Air)-Pejuang), Naganathan Pillai (Warisan) and Mohd Zulkifli Abdul Fattah (Parti Rakyat Malaysia).

The independents are lawyer-cum-activist Siti Kasim, social media influencer Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharudin and social activist Too Cheng Huat.  

Batu has 113,863 registered voters, with a large chunk of them coming in the 21-49 age group.

Meanwhile, the Ampang parliamentary seat is seeing a record number of five women candidates in a nine-cornered fight.

The incumbent is Parti Bangsa Malaysia’s Zuraida Kamaruddin, who won the seat in 2008 under the PKR banner. She defected to Bersatu in February 2020 befoe joining her current party this year.

Others in the race in Ampang are Ivone Low Yi Wen (BN), Rodziah Ismail (PH), Sasha Lyna Abdul Latif (Perikatan Nasional), Nurul Ashikin Mabahwi (GTA) and Lai Wai Chong (Warisan).

Three independents are also in the fray – Muhammad Shafiq Izwan Mohd Yunos, M Raveendran and Tan Hua Meng.

The Sepang parliamentary seat is another crowded field with eight contestants.

Rina Harun of PN faces Anuar Basiran (BN), Raj Muni Aiman Athirah (PH), Che Asmah Ibrahim (Pejuang), Mohd Daud Leong (Parti Utama Rakyat), Nageswaran Ravi (PRM), and Independents Mohd Syahrul Amri Mat Sari and Muneswaran Muthiah.

Other seats facing eight-cornered clashes include Bangi and Kota Raja. Amanah president Mohamad Sabu will be defending the Kota Raja seat.

Seven-cornered fights can be seen in five parliamentary seats: Sungai Siput, Kapar, Klang, Alor Setar and Sungai Buloh.

Twenty-four parliamentary constituencies will witness six-cornered clashes and 43 will see five-cornered contests.

There are also 82 four-cornered clashes and 54-cornered fights.

Sabah will see one straight fight, and Sarawak, eight.

The one-on-one fights are in Kinabatangan, Kota Samarahan, Batang Sadong, Tanjung Manis, Igan, Sarikei, Mukah, Hulu Rajang and Limbang.

In comparison, in 2018, the majority of the parliamentary constituencies saw three-cornered clashes in 143 seats.

Political analysts have said that multi-cornered fights will result in votes being split between BN, PH, PN and even GTA.

Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research’s senior fellow Azmi Hasan said the high number of Independents would impact the outcome for the major coalitions.

“For example, in Batu, most of the 10 are independent candidates and they will pull a few hundred or thousands of votes from mainstream opposition candidates who are either with PN or PH,” he was quoted as saying in The Star. – November 6, 2022.