JOHOR BARU, Aug 26 — Johor’s twin by-elections for the Pulai parliamentary seat and the Simpang Jeram state seat will see three candidates duking it out in each constituency respectively.

Each of the two seats feature one candidate from Pakatan Harapan (PH), one from Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Independents.

Suhaizan Kayat from Parti Amanah Negara is PH’s choice. He will be facing PN’s Zulkifli Jaafar and Independent candidate Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi who is also president of civil society Persatuan Keselamatan Pengguna Kuala Lumpur and run for the Putrajaya parliamentary seat in GE15 last November.

The three contestants for the Pulai federal seat were officially announced by returning officer Miswan Yunus at 10.30am today after the nomination process ended here.

All candidates will be represented by their respective party logos, except for Samsudin whose logo is a key.

"After going through the respective nomination forms, there are no nomination papers that have been rejected,” Miswan announced at the nomination centre at the Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim here.

The Simpang Jeram state by-election will also see a three-cornered contest with candidates from PH, PN and an independent.

Former Muar municipal council engineer Nazri Abdul Rahman from Amanah will represent PH who will be going against PN’s consultant surgeon Dr Mazri Yahya from PAS and independent S. Jegananthan.

Like in Pulai, the candidates from PH and PN will use their respective coalition logos while Jegananthan is contesting under the elephant logo.

Their candidacy was announced at the nomination centre in Muar.

The by-election for Pulai and Simpang Jeram was called following the death of Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub on July 23 due to a brain haemorrhage. He was 61.

He was the elected representative for both seats.

Salahuddin was the Amanah deputy president and had served as the domestic trade and cost of living minister.

The Pulai parliamentary constituency is an urban area in southern Johor bordering the Johor Baru and Iskandar Puteri parliamentary seats.

BN was the dominant political coalition in the Pulai constituency from its establishment in 1974 that later was won by the PH coalition in Election 2018.

The Pulai parliamentary constituency is a Malay-majority seat, making up 51.23 per cent. The ethnic Chinese make up 36.88 per cent, followed by the ethnic Indians at 10.11 per cent and other races at 2.47 per cent.

The Pulai parliamentary constituency is a Malay-majority seat, making up 51.23 per cent. The ethnic Chinese make up 36.88 per cent, followed by the ethnic Indians at 10.11 per cent and other races at 2.47 per cent.

Simpang Jeram is a semi-rural state seat under the Bakri parliamentary constituency in northern Johor, together with Bentayan and Bukit Naning.

It was carved out from a previous state seat called Sungai Abong just before the 2018 national polls.

Based on the latest EC statistics, there are 166,653 registered voters, 165,799 ordinary voters, 927 police personnel and spouses and 26 overseas postal voters in the Pulai parliamentary constituency, while in Simpang Jeram state constituency, there are 40,379 registered voters, including six overseas postal voters.

The EC has set polling for both Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Jeram state seats by-elections on September 9 while early voting on September 5.