VOTERS are looking forward to good news from the winning candidate for the Mahkota state seat in the Kluang parliamentary constituency of Johor. Among them is trader S. Jayanthi, who has been running her family-owned sundry shop on Jalan Station in Kluang town for 11 years.
The mother-of-four said many small businesses had closed since the Covid-19 pandemic and this had negatively impacted the local economy. “Kluang used to be very busy but now it is like a ghost town, especially at night. “The few shops that are still around will close early because there is no business,” she said.
Jayanthi said Kluang town would only see a high number of shoppers during festive seasons, while there were hardly any customers on regular days. “Something needs to be done to help local businesses and revive the town,” she added. Mahkota is one of two state seats under the Kluang parliamentary constituency.
The other is Mengkibol, which is currently held by DAP’s Chew Chong Sin. Mahkota constituency has 66,318 registered voters, with 54.5% Malay, 34.
2% Chinese, 7.8% Indian and 1.8% from other ethnic groups.
It is home to the old Kluang train station and two army camps – Mahkota and Padang Tembak. The seat fell vacant after the death of Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain on Aug 2. The by-election will see a straight fight between Barisan Nasional’s Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah and Perikatan Nasional’s Mohamad Haizan Jaafar.
Sharifah Azizah won the seat with a 5,1.