SHAH ALAM – The decision to hold the Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections on separate dates could sharpen national attention on each contest and potentially encourage higher voter turnout.
Political analyst Dr Oh Ei Sun said the Election Commission (EC) reasoning for the staggered timeline was understandable from an administrative standpoint.
“The official reason given by the EC makes sense, in that the EC must have long anticipated the Johor polls and therefore has been laying administrative groundwork for it.
“The same could not be said about NS, which is holding a snap poll, so EC needs more time to prepare there,” he told Sinar Daily.
He said that the staggered schedule could give political parties in Negeri Sembilan an advantage.
“Politically, I think the various Negeri Sembilan political players also welcome a later poll there, as they give them more time to consolidate their respective internal differences before tackling the polls,” he said.
Oh noted that separating the elections could also have a positive effect on voter engagement.
“It can focus on separate national political attention on these two states more intensely. Hopefully, it could lead to more political awareness particularly among the new voters and thus eliciting their willingness to come out to vote,” he said.
Still, he described the EC’s move as unusual given historical precedent.
“This still seems to be a rather strange decision, as historically such state elections are likely to be held simultaneously.
“Perhaps the EC was really caught in a surprise by the NS polls,” he added.
In the previous election cycle, Johor held its state election on March 12, 2022, with no other states going to the polls on the same day, recording a voter turnout of 54 per cent.
Negeri Sembilan, on the other hand, last voted on Aug 12, 2023, alongside Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Penang, with a higher turnout of 68.35 per cent.
The upcoming staggered elections are expected to test whether increased focus on individual states can translate into stronger voter participation, particularly among new and undecided voters.
The Election Commission recently announced that Johor will go to the polls on July 11, while Negeri Sembilan will follow on Aug 1 – a departure from the usual practice of holding multiple state elections simultaneously.