KUALA LUMPUR: Campaigning for the 16th Negeri Sembilan state election officially began on Saturday (Jul 18) after the Election Commission announced that all 36 seats are up for grabs, with a total of 103 candidates vying for them.The 36 constituencies will see 11 straight fights, 21 three-cornered contests, two four-cornered contests and two five-cornered contests. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition will contest in all the constituencies, while the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition will field 25 candidates. The state was previously jointly run by the two coalitions, replicating a power-sharing model of the federal unity government. The Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) – which is contesting in the election on its own - will field 24 candidates, potentially setting up fights with the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition that it is still a part of. This comes amid rifts within the opposition coalition.
PN, which is led by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), will contest in 11 seats. Three candidates from smaller parties and four independents complete the field.The Election Commission said 94 of the candidates are men and nine are women. The youngest is 23, while the oldest is 70.In the previous election held in 2023, PH won 17 of the 36 state seats, followed by BN with 14. PN won the remaining five seats, including two by Bersatu.PN-BN “UNDERSTANDING”On Saturday, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said that PN and BN would campaign for each other’s candidates throughout the Negeri Sembilan state election.“The spirit is very good, especially the cooperation with BN. The important thing is to ensure that Malay-Muslim leadership continues in Negeri Sembilan.“We will help each other during the campaign … They will campaign in our areas, and we will campaign in theirs,” he was quoted as saying by Malay Mail.Earlier, BN had said that it was only contesting in 25 seats and had left the remaining 11 without candidates as it works to finalise an electoral understanding with a “trusted friend”.Commenting on whether the cooperation could eventually be formalised, Hadi stressed that it would be assessed over time.“We were informed about this cooperation from the beginning. We are not rushing into anything; we will assess it from time to time … we will see how things develop and what the outcome is,” he said.
