Johor polls: All 56 Perikatan candidates qualified for MB post, says Sahruddin downplaying talk of his candidacy

TANGKAK: All 56 Perikatan Nasional candidates are qualified to be potential mentri besar candidates should the coalition win the state election, says Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal.

The former Johor mentri besar played down talk that he was the top contender to be picked as Perikatan’s mentri besar candidate.

“All 56 Perikatan candidates are qualified to be mentri besar. So we will allow our top leadership to make the best decision,” he said when met during a walkabout session at a local stall here Saturday (March 5).

The Perikatan supreme council would be holding a meeting later Saturday to determine its candidate for mentri besar if the party won the Johor state election, said its secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin.

According to him, several candidates for the post had been identified so far and the selected person would be announced soon.

Sahruddin, who was contesting in a four-cornered fight for the Bukit Kepong seat, said that the most important issue for Perikatan was to win as many seats as possible to form a state government.

Asked for his response if he was chosen as a mentri besar candidate, Sahruddin said that he would carry the responsibility as best as he could.

“I will work and carry out the responsibility as best as I can,” he said.

Sahruddin – who was the incumbent Bukit Kepong assemblyman – was the mentri besar from April 2019 to February 2020 following the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government.

He had replaced the late Datuk Osman Sapian, who resigned from the post after 11 months.

Osman passed away in December 2021 following a stroke in October of the same year.