More than 700,000 new voters - Umno up for the challenge

JOHOR BAHRU - Umno ready to face the Undi18 challenge going into the Johor State Elections as they try to entice more than 700,000 new voters.

Its secretary-general Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said this wasn’t a challenge to Umno alone but also other parties planning to run in the polls.

He said the appearance of the young voters in Johor has increased to 2.5 million voters compared to the 1.8 million registered voters in the 14th General Election.

This, he said, was a 28 per cent increase with the additional 749,731 voters recorded after Undi18 was gazetted by the government recently.

He added that in general, all 56 State Legislative Assemblies in Johor increased by 20 to 30 per cent.

“We are ready to face the challenge. In fact, all Members of Parliament have been briefed about the gazetted voters.

“Registration of Undi18 including first time voters since December and those that were gazetted on Jan 16.

“Total number of voters will also increase automatically every 16th of the month,” he said during a press conference at the Umno Johor Liaison Office yesterday.

Ahmad said this after attending a a programme with Kongres Islam Muslim Malaysia (Kimma) machinery. Also present were were Kimma president Datuk Seri Syed Ibrahim Kader and Johor state president Datuk Anwar Sadat.

The Pontian MP also said Umno candidates had “WALI” characteristics, which stood for “Winnable, Acceptable and Likeable”.

Ahmad said these criteria were set by Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi during the Melaka State Elections back in November.