Red, blue and yellow flags crowded the roads into Johor Bahru before dawn on Saturday, lashed to lamp posts, flyovers and roadside trees after a campaign in which Malaysia’s governing allies spent two weeks trying to cut each other down.
The campaign ended at 11.59pm on Friday, silencing the loudspeakers and convoys that had criss-crossed the state since late June.
At 8am, the contest moved to 1,076 polling centres, where about 2.72 million Johoreans were eligible to choose a new state government from 172 candidates fighting across all 56 seats.
Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) fielded candidates in every constituency despite sitting together in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s federal government, turning Johor into a public quarrel between partners who insist their pact in Putrajaya can withstand the rancour on the ground.
Fourteen seats have straight fights, 27 feature three-cornered contests, 12 are four-way battles and three have five candidates.