JOHOR BAHRU: The former Senggarang state assemblyman Khairuddin A Rahim, who will contest the Rengit state seat, is among the last seven PKR candidates announced by the party for the Johor state election, bringing the number of candidates to 20.

The seven candidates were revealed by PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at Kampung Kopok Baru multipurpose hall in Pasir Gudang this afternoon.

Besides Khairuddin, other candidates are Johor PKR Women vice-chief Haryati Abu Nasir who will be contesting the Semarang seat; Haniff @ Ghazali Hosman (Benut); Mohd Zaiful Bakri (Kukup); Rosman Tahir (Tanjung Surat) and Zulinah A Johari (Tenggaroh).

The party is also fielding its youngest candidate, Omar Mokhtar A Manap, 29, in Johor Lama.

Khairuddin, 62, who contested on behalf of Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) in the 14th General Election (GE14) said he hoped that his track record as the Senggarang assemblyman could woo voters to choose him in the upcoming polls.

"I hope the people in the Rengit constituency will be able to accept me as I am, thus bringing victory to Pakatan Harapan," he told reporters after the announcement.

Meanwhile, Omar said his candidacy was the sweetest gift for his 29th birthday today, adding that he would highlight people's issues such as cost of living, employment opportunities and Undi18 in his campaign.

In GE14 PH won 35 state assembly seats out of 56 seats of which PKR won five seats out of 12 namely Bukit Naning, Pemanis, Semerah, Bukit Batu and Tiram.

However, on March 2020 Pemanis assemblyman Dr Chong Fat Full announced his resignation from the party while three Amanah incumbents namely Muhamad Said Jonit (Mahkota), Khairuddin (Senggarang) and Dr Faizul Amri Adnan (Serom) joined PKR in Feb last year, bringing the number of PKR seats to seven.

The Election Commission (EC) has fixed nomination on Feb 26, polling on March 12 and early voting on March 8.

-- BERNAMA