KULAI: Having a high number of women candidates contesting in the Johor polls is a great development for Malaysia, says PKR’s Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar.

       The former PKR vice-president applauded the move by political parties to field more women as their candidates in the state election.

       “To me, this is a great development as this is a worldwide trend to see more women being actively involved in politics, either as candidates or even elected representatives.

       “However, as we are empowering women, we must also make sure that our male candidates also care about women’s rights and acknowledge their role.

       “This should not only happen at the policymakers level but all segments of the community. Then, we can fight for issues such as equal pay for all workers no matter whether they are male or female,” she added.

       Nurul Izzah said this when met after doing a walkabout with the party’s Bukit Batu candidate Chiong Sen Sern at a hypermarket here on Sunday (Feb 27).

       On Saturday (Feb 26), Bernama reported that the state election would see more women candidates contesting compared to the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018.

       In the current state election, 37 women candidates were nominated compared with 28 candidates in GE14.

       Based on the list of candidates, Barisan Nasional is fielding the biggest number of women candidates at 14.

       Its candidates - Nor Rashidah Ramli for Parit Raja seat and Rashidah Ismail for Pasir Raja - are among those retained by Barisan to defend the seats they won in 2018.

       Barisan is also fielding Kelly Chye Pei Yee, 26, in Mengkibol. She is among the youngest candidates in this state election.

       Pakatan Harapan has also picked eight women candidates to win back the state seats for the coalition after a political polemic, which saw the Pakatan government fall in February 2020.

       Johor DAP Wanita Publicity secretary Marina Ibrahim was among the women candidates standing in the election for Pakatan.

       Apart from that, the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda), which is contesting for the first time, is fielding the party’s secretary-general Amira Aisya Abd Aziz as the candidate for Puteri Wangsa constituency and Nur Afiqah M. Zulkifli as the Bukit Kepong candidate.

       Perikatan Nasional is also featuring six women candidates while Parti Pejuang Tanah Air has four and PKR three.