COMMENT | On Jan 22, 2022, the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar consented to the dissolution of the Johor State Assembly after granting an audience to Johor Menteri Besar Hasni Mohammad.

The dissolution comes after months of speculation, with Umno seen to be pushing for state polls after convincing wins in Sabah and Malacca.

On Feb 9, 2022, the Election Commission (EC) met and set several important dates for the Johor election, where Feb 26, 2022, will be nomination day, while March 12, 2022, will be the polling date for all 56 state seats in Johor.

The election in Johor will be historic. It will be the first time in our country’s history that 18 to 20-year-olds will be able to vote. This comes after the constitutional amendment that was passed in 2019 under the Pakatan Harapan government.

At the same time, eligible voters who have yet to register before this have been automatically added to the electoral rolls. With Undi18 and automatic voter registration, there will be a total of 2.59 million eligible voters in Johor.

For context, between the 13th general election in 2013 and the 14th general election in 2018, there were an additional 1.7 million new voters nationwide. This time, in Johor alone, there is an increase of around 700,000 new voters...