JOHOR BARU: Young voters will have a big say in at least six state seats, which have seen a significant rise in numbers after the implementation of Undi18.

       All these seats, mostly urban and in the south of the state, have over 100,000 new voters each.

       The six are Kota Iskandar with 116,846 new voters, Puteri Wangsa (112,865), Tiram (105,769), Perling (101,339), Permas (103,649) and Skudai (102,893).

       Speaker Suhaizan Kayat said that each of the 56 seats in the state have recorded an increase of between 25% and 70% in voter numbers compared to the 14th general election (GE14), with a total of 750,00 new voters this time.

       Puteri Wangsa, he said, saw the highest increase – by about 70% from 66,147 in GE14 to 112,856. Non-Malay voters made up more than 60% of the electorate there while more than 50% were aged below 40.

       Suhaizan hoped that the Election Commission would be able to break up the huge seats in future as it would be difficult for an assemblyman to service a large population.

       “Actually, an assemblyman should take care of about 30,000 to 40,000 voters. Now, we have 14 seats with more than 50,000 voters,” he said.

       Suhaizan said that to carry out a redelineation exercise in Johor, the ruling government would need a two-thirds majority.

       As at Dec 31 last year, Johor had a total of 2.59 million voters.

       Meanwhile, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia political analyst Dr Mohd Akbal Abdullah said that besides the six state seats in urban areas, semi-rural seats in Johor have also seen a major spike in the numbers of new voters.

       He added that the number of new voters will keep increasing not only in Johor’s 56 state seats but throughout the country. As such, he said, there is a need to review electoral boundaries more frequently.

       “With Undi18, things have changed and the number of new voters will keep increasing yearly, making it difficult for elected representatives to service their constituents.

       “There should be a redelineation within state seats to cope with the increase in voters. The only way that can be done is with a strong state government,” he added.