JOHOR BAHRU: Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) deputy president Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub and Johor State Assembly Speaker Suhaizan Kaiat are among 16 candidates from the party to contest in the Johor state election on March 12.

The announcement was made by Amanah president Mohamad Sabu here today.

He also revealed that Johor Amanah chairman Aminolhuda Hassan and his deputy Dzulkefly Ahmad would also contest in the election.

Mohamad said Salahuddin who is also incumbent Simpang Jeram assemblyman, Aminolhuda (Parit Yaani) and Dzulkefly (Kota Iskandar) would defend their seats, while Suhaizan would be fielded in Pulai Sebatang.

In the meantime, Dr Sulaiman Mohd Nor and Nor Hayati Bachok would be defending their Kemelah and Maharani seats respectively, while Pulai Sebatang incumbent Muhammad Taqiuddin Cheman would contest in the Mahkota seat.

Mohamad also named debutant candidates namely Elia Nadira Sabudin (Bukit Pasir), 'Asim' Abdullah Ainullotfi (Serom), Abd Hamid Jamah (Senggarang), Rohani Banu Abd Rahman Krishnan (Kahang), Ahmad Daniel Shahrudin (Panti), Norazila Sanip (Penawar), Syed Othman Abdullah (Permas), Mat Khairi Samsudin (Sedili) and Mohammad Fakrulradzi Mahmud (Endau).

Mat Khairi, 66 is the party's oldest candidate while Mohammad Fakrulradzi, 32 is the youngest.

Meanwhile, Salahuddin said candidate selection for the upcoming state polls prioritised integrity, trust, qualification, career and experience in politics, among others, adding the party wanted to prove that it is relevant, progressive, unbiased in terms of gender and age and has a combination of old and young candidates.

"This is an approach by Amanah and Pakatan Harapan (PH) that I think will be able to garner support during the state election," he told reporters after the announcement was made.

In the 14th General Election (GE14), Amanah contested in 12 state seats and won nine namely Kemelah, Serom, Simpang Jeram, Maharani, Parit Yaani, Senggarang, Mahkota, Kota Iskandar and Pulai Sebatang.

-- BERNAMA