It's Ghani vs Kit Siang in Gelang Patah

Johor BN head Abdul Ghani Othman is the candidate for the Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency, setting the stage for a grand battle with DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.

The announcement was made this morning alongside the launch of the Johor BN manifesto at a hotel at Johor Bahru.

Ghani has given up the Serom state seat to make the switch.

The state BN also announced its other candidates for parliamentary and state seats.

Caretaker Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin will move from his Pasir Gudang parliamentary seat to the Permas state seat, making him an obvious candidate for the menteri besar, to succeed Ghani, should he win.

Another hopeful for the menteri besar's post, Nur Jazlan Mohamed, will defend the Pulai parliamentary seat.

Veteran Shahrir Samad will defend Johor Bahru parliamentary constituency, while former Umno Puteri chief Azalina Othman has been tasked with defending the Pengerang parliamentary seat.

Kit Siang seeks 'clean contest'

In an immediate reaction, Lim "invited" Ghani to join him in an accord to make Gelang Patah the model constituency of clean, free and fair elections.

This, said Lim in a statement, is because GE13 is expected to be dirtiest in Malaysia's election history.

Lim said he is seeking Ghani's agreement to a campaign with these features:

• No personal attacks or character assassination, not only by the candidates, but their election teams and workers;

• No playing the race or religion card, as GE13 should be an occasion to promote and foster race relations, and not an occasion to divide and polarise further the diverse races and religions;

• No politics of money or the use of money to buy votes, which is the root cause of the rampant corruption in Malaysia;

• Commitment by both of us to condemn and dissociate ourselves from dirty tricks, even by anonymous quarters; and

• Both candidates to sign the Transparency International-Malaysia's Election Integrity Pledge (EIP) with the establishment of a EIP Watchdog Commission in Gelang Patah comprising Malaysians of impeccable character.

 [More to follow]