Zuraida praises 37 women candidates, higher than in previous polls

 

JOHOR POLLS | Council of Malaysian Women Political Leaders (Comwel) president Zuraida Kamaruddin has congratulated the 37 women fielded as candidates in the Johor state polls.

She said this is an improvement over the 28 female candidates in the previous state election.

"On behalf of Comwel, I would like to congratulate and wish success for all the women candidates and hopefully, they will bring about positive change to the rakyat if they successfully become elected representatives," said Zuraida, who is also the primary industries and commodities minister.

However, Zuraida noted that the 37 female candidates only made up 15.5 percent of the total number of those contesting in the snap polls.

"Even though the total female candidates is only 15.5 percent of the total contesting, I hope the voters will give a chance to the women candidates to win the areas they are contesting.

"Obviously, when an elected representative is a woman, she will surely bring issues related to women and the family to the state assembly as well as to amend any relevant policies," she said in a statement today.

Zuraida also specifically congratulated BN for fielding the highest number of women candidates - 14 - among the parties contesting in the Johor state election.

For the parties who have not put forward that many women candidates, she said she hoped they would work on developing more women leaders in the future.

She also noted that for the Johor state assembly to achieve the quota of 30 percent women representation, at least 17 women had to win their respective constituencies.

Nomination for the Johor snap polls had taken place yesterday, with campaigning kicking off immediately after. Johoreans will vote on March 12. - Mkini