By Syauqi Jamil
KUALA LUMPUR: PAS Deputy President Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man today said that the Islamic party is likely to challenge Pakatan Harapan for the Selangor state assembly seat of Seri Setia, in a straight fight.
He said his party will have a meeting on the matter this Saturday to further evaluate the situation if they were to contest for the seat.
“Principally, chances are we will contest, PAS will place a candidate,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.
Asked on whether PAS will collaborate with Umno during the campaign period, the Kubang Kerian MP simply said that they will accept the hands of whoever that’s willing to help.
He said this can be a good litmus test on how far Umno is willing to help PAS out, especially after the Islamic party gave way to Umno during the Sungai Kandis by-elections.
“We’ll see how willing Umno is to help us out now. By-election is not the main battlefield but it can send signals to the government,” he said.
The Seri Setia state seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent Dr Shaharuddin Badaruddin who passed away due to colon cancer.
This marks the third tragedy which triggered by-elections after GE14 with the first being the Sungai Kandis seat after the death of Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei due to lymphoma and the Balakong seat after Eddie Ng died in an accident.
Over the weekends, PKR candidate Mohd Zawawi Ahmad Mughni polled 15,427 votes against 9,585 for Barisan Nasional’s Lokman Noor Adam to win the Sungai Kandis by-election.
When asked if PAS had failed to urged its members to support BN, Tuan Ibrahim denied any boycott taking place but blamed the loss on low voter turnout of 49.8% instead.
“Our survey shows that PAS members did go out to vote but those who’s far away didn’t come back for this,” said Tuan Ibrahim.
