Johor polls: Three contenders confident giving Hasni good run for his money

The three are Senator Datuk Isa Abd Hamid of Perikatan Nasional (PN), Haniff @ Ghazali Hosman of PKR and Iskandar Noor Ibrahim representing Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang).

Each believed that he has what it takes to win the votes from 28,165 voters in Benut.

Isa, 55, said he was able to give an equally tough competition to all the other candidates even with Hasni of Barisan Nasional (BN) being the main contender in the four-cornered fight.

Hasni, who is also Johor BN chairman, has been the assemblyman for Benut for three terms since 2008 and Pontian Member of Parliament for a term since 2004.

Apart from having been a Senator in charge of Orang Asli since 2016, Isa said his participation in the law-making process and being part of the government were his advantages.

"My strength is that I was born and raised here in Benut. I was a teacher at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Benut from 1998 to 2008. For that 10 years, many children in the constituency became my students.

"And during the campaign, I met many of them, all grown up now," said the former director of Pahang Orang Asli Development Department.

Meanwhile, Haniff, 42, admitted the tough competition, especially from Hasni in the contest for the seat.

Nevertheless, he said he believed that he would be able to garner support from the voters in the state constituency as he was also quite well known for his service as a Benut Council member before.

"I'm confident of my chances but I will not underestimate the opponents and I will go all out in my campaign...maybe the people want to see a change after being under the same administration for far too long," he said.

Iskandar Noor, 66, on the other hand, said that despite this being his first participation in a state election, he believed that every candidate has an equal chance of winning the hearts of the voters with their own approach and strategy.

"A new candidate may have a good run on the beginner's luck...our book is new so it's easy for us to write down our plans on that empty pages," said the candidate who holds a Master of Science in Business Information System from the University of East London.

The three candidates have also set some key focus areas including ensuring the wellbeing and improving the socio-economic status of the constituents if given the mandate to represent them.

Isa, for one, lined up six main agendas, including improving cockle-farming and marketing activities, increasing the number of affordable houses and creating a bundle-clothing business hub to boost the economic activities and tourism sector in Benut.

Haniff wanted to eradicate poverty by improving every policy related to people's wellbeing and offering various skill training programmes, especially to women to increase their income, while Iskandar Noor committed to expanding the potential of agriculture and freshwater products and improving infrastructure and internet network in Benut.

Early voting is tomorrow, while polling is on Saturday.