PEMANIS: Pakatan Harapan is making inroads in its campaigning at Felda settler areas in Johor, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

       The PKR president said this was an improvement compared to the past, when Pakatan was not even welcome to enter such areas.

       "At least we could penetrate. Last time, we could not even enter Buloh Kasap, but now, we could enter and we were even welcomed by villagers.

       "This is a convincing improvement," he told reporters when met at the Pemanis operations centre on Wednesday (March 2) evening.

       Anwar also denied that Pakatan's campaign in rural areas was lagging behind Barisan Nasional and Perikatan Nasional.

       "You need to look closer. Pakatan is 'moving' in all the seats it is contesting, although other parties may be richer than us," he said.

       He also said the new campaigning SOP that now allows ceramah to be held up to midnight was a request made by Pakatan Harapan to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in a meeting with Pakatan leaders on Tuesday (March 1).

       "That was part of our requests during a meeting with the prime minister, that is to give us more leeway to reach out to the public.

       "We just want to meet the people. On the SOPs about physical distancing, we agreed to it," Anwar said.

       The Port Dickson MP also said Pakatan will soon decide on its Mentri Besar candidates should it win the state election, adding that it will launch its election manifesto soon.

       PKR is contesting 20 seats while its Pakatan partners Amanah and DAP are standing in 16 and 14 seats, respectively.

       Polling for the Johor state election is on March 12.