JOHOR BARU, Feb 19 — PKR today named social-environmental activist Khairuddin A. Rahim as PKR’s Rengit state seat candidate, making him the last of the party’s contestants for the upcoming state election.

The 62-year-old Senggarang incumbent had previously contested under Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and won in the 14th general election (GE14).

Besides being an active assemblyman, Khairuddin also once helmed the post of Johor Amanah’s secretary.

However, he left Amanah to join PKR in February last year citing dissatisfaction with his former party’s leadership.

The announcement was made by PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the Kampung Kopok Baru multipurpose hall in Pasir Gudang today.

With this, PKR has finalised all of its candidates for the 20 state seats that the party will contest in the Johor polls on March 12.

Apart from Khairuddin, the party also announced Johor PKR women vice-chief Haryati Abu Nasir who will contest the Semarang seat.

PKR also named Haniff @ Ghazali Hosman for Benut, Mohd Zaiful Bakri (Kukup), Rosman Tahir (Tanjung Surat) and Zulinah A. Johari (Tenggaroh).

The party is also fielding its youngest candidate, 29-year-old Omar Mokhtar A. Manap, who will contest the Johor Lama seat.

Meanwhile, Khairuddin said that his experience and also good record in Senggarang will be a base for him to build on if he secures Rengit.

"At the same time, I hope the people in Rengit will be able to accept me as who I am and believe that I will lead to Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) victory this time,” he said when contacted today.

In the 2018 general election, PH won 35 seats out of 56 state seats contested.

PKR, which contested 12 seats, manage to only secure five seats in GE14. The seats are Bukit Naning, Pemanis, Semerah, Bukit Batu and Tiram.

For the upcoming Johor election, PKR will contest 20 seats.

Initially, the party was to only contest 17 seats, where three were to be ceded to the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda). However, negotiations hit a deadlock after Muda declined the three seats offered by PKR.

The Election Commission (EC) has set March 12 as polling day, with nomination day on February 26, while early voting is on March 8.