PAS will not negotiate with Pakatan Harapan on polls candidates

0

MARANG: PAS is firm on its stand and will not negotiate with Pakatan Harapan to have the latter’s candidates be fielded in the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar parliamentary by-elections next month.

Its president, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, said PAS would no longer collaborate with the parties in the opposition pact as PAS had done too much sacrifices to save their reputation.

“If they expect us (PAS) to continue working of them, we will not do that anymore because we have sacrificed a lot of constituencies for them before and it all went unappreciated.

“They come only when election is called. It happened in too many elections before, in which only PAS worked hard to ensure victory because PAS worked all the time,” he told reporters at the office of the International Union of Muslim Scholars yesterday.

He said PAS was confident that its candidates would be able to win the two seats without the support from the opposition pact as the party had quite a strong support in the two constituencies.

In fact, at the last general election, Abdul Hadi said PAS candidates for the two parliamentary seats had also increased their vote majority even though they lost to Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates.

“We will not give any hope to the Pakatan Harapan because we are confident with our own strength … they are new (in the two constituencies), while we already have strong foundation there,” he said.

The Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar seats fell vacant following the death of incumbents Datuk Noriah Kasnon and Datuk Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad in a helicopter crash in Sebuyau, Sarawak on May 5.

The by-elections will be held simultaneously on June 18, while the nomination day is set on June 5. — Bernama