ALOR GAJAH: PAS must leave Perikatan Nasional and cut its ties with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia if the party wants to work with Umno in the 15th General Election, says Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The Umno president said these were among the three conditions set out for PAS.
“PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang is aware of the conditions.
“We can only start talking about working together if these are met,” he said after closing a boot camp organised by Barisan Nasional here yesterday.
Ahmad Zahid said no official or high-level meetings had been held so far with PAS on any GE15 collaboration.
Umno and PAS are in Muafakat Nasional, a loose cooperation between both parties which started after the last general election to strengthen unity among the Malay and Muslim political parties.
PAS is also part of Perikatan, together with Bersatu, Sabah STAR, SAPP and Gerakan.
It was formed following the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government in February 2020.
Last month, Abdul Hadi and Ahmad Zahid reportedly held a meeting described by sources as just “a courtesy visit”.
Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin later said he told the PAS president that all doors were closed to Bersatu working with Umno.
Meanwhile, Bernama reported that Kelantan Umno would submit its list of prospective candidates for GE15 to Ahmad Zahid today.
Kelantan Umno chief Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub said the list would contain nominees for all the 45 state and 14 parliamentary seats in Kelantan.
“A total of 73 candidates were nominated for parliamentary seats and 232 candidates for state seats. “For seats currently represented by Umno, we will submit five names while six names will be given for seats without (Umno) representatives.
“We leave it to the party president to scrutinise the list and see if any of the five nominated is suitable,” he told reporters in Machang, Kelantan, yesterday.
Ahmad Jazlan, who is Machang MP, said the list was drawn up based on the views and feedback of Umno divisional committees.
On another matter, Ahmad Jazlan added that Umno had never turned its back on any party which promised to be loyal and friendly to it.
“If Muafakat Nasional 2.0 (MN 2.0) happens, Kelantan Umno will leave it to the party’s top leadership to decide because it involves party policies.
“Let’s have a ‘friendly match’ in Kelantan if MN 2.0 materialises. This cannot be ruled out as anything is possible in politics,” he added.
