JOHOR BAHRU, July 5— The burgeoning support for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the Johor state election campaign is driven by the effectiveness of its campaign strategy.

PH secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said PH is implementing its campaign strategy by classifying the 56 state seats being contested according to priority levels based on current support trends on the ground.

He said the “grades” or ratings were given to ensure that specific focus could be channelled to target areas based on the different profiles and challenges in each constituency.

“We graded the areas. From the beginning, (for example) Puteri Wangsa is certainly not the same as Johor Lama, for example, nor is Larkin the same as Endau.

“So we have several clusters of areas that have been given priority ratings,” he told reporters after a breakfast session with the Chinese community and Puteri Wangsa candidate Dr Maszlee Malik here today.

Saifuddin Nasution, who is also PKR’s joint election director, said the increase in support for PH was also aided by the opposition’s political statements that gave PH an advantage.

He gave the example of PAS contesting only 11 seats and asking its supporters to back Barisan Nasional (BN) in other areas as a factor that affected support for PH.

On the contrary, he said, PH took a more transparent approach by announcing the seat distribution clearly and offering a reasonable manifesto that could be implemented.

“The convincing support pattern was contributed by the campaign strategy that was arranged by PH (and) political statements from the opposition,” he said.

He also described the presence of former Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi at a series of ceramah with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Felda Ulu Tiram yesterday as adding to PH’s momentum.

At the same time, he described Maszlee as a qualified candidate and an important asset to PH if the coalition is given the mandate to form the state govt after the Johor polls.

In this election, PH is fielding candidates in all 56 state seats, comprising 20 representatives from PKR, Amanah (19) and DAP (17).

The Johor polls are seeing a total of 172 candidates contesting, with polling day set for July 11 and early voting on July 7.

To get the latest news on the 16th Johor PRN, visit https://prn.bernama.com/johor/.

N41: PUTERI WANGSA: 128,723

Nicholas Paul Vincent (Bersama)

Wang Wee Siong (Independent/IND)

Dr Maszlee Malik (PH-PKR)

Rashifa Aljunied (Muda)

Teow Chia Ling (BN-MCA)

(2022: Amira Aisya Abd Aziz: Muda: Majority 7,114) — Bernama