PETALING JAYA: Gen Z voters are emerging as a force to be reckoned with at the coming Johor and Negri Sembilan elections.

The group made up nearly a third of eligible voters at the last polls in both states, with more set to join the electoral rolls this time around.

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In Johor, 28% or 736,264 out of 2.6 million eligible voters were aged 18 to 29, with Gen Z (18–26) forming the majority within this group.

In Negri Sembilan, Gen Z voters made up 27% or 232,379 out of 850,865 eligible voters.

The analysis is based on the Election Commission voter demographic data from the GE15 electoral roll, compiled by electiondata.my.

The 2022 Johor state election was the first in Malaysia held after the implementation of Undi18, marking the debut of automatic voter registration for 18 to 20-year-olds in an election.

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In Johor, 10 of 56 state seats had at least 30% Gen Z voters.

Most of these seats were held by Umno, with the exception of N41 Puteri Wangsa (Muda) and N51 Bukit Batu (PKR).

The highest Gen Z concentrations were in N40 Tiram (37%), N49 Kota Iskandar (36%), N41 Puteri Wangsa (36%), N50 Bukit Permai (35%) and N43 Permas (33%).

These constituencies are largely clustered within or around the Johor Bahru–Iskandar Malaysia growth corridor.

In Negri Sembilan, 10 of the 36 state seats had at least 30% Gen Z voters.

The top five were N25 Paroi (36%), N31 Bagan Pinang (36%), N20 Labu (35%), N10 Nilai (34%) and N21 Bukit Kepayang (33%).

Across both states, voters aged 30–59 remain the dominant group, forming more than half of the electorate in every constituency.

Meanwhile, older voters aged 60 and above exceeded a quarter of the electorate in a small number of Johor seats, led by N12 Bentayan (30%), N45 Stulang (29%) and N02 Jementah (26%).

In Negri Sembilan, the highest shares of senior voters are in N22 Rahang (31%), N12 Temiang (30%) and N11 Lobak (30%).