Umno will contest in the upcoming Permatang Pasir by-election, a state seat which fell vacant following the death of its PAS incumbent Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman this morning.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also Umno president, after chairing the party's supreme council meeting at the Umno headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

najib 100 day bash 110709 najib 03 "In accordance with our principles, if the seat is vacant due to something related to the constitution (such as death, bankruptcy and so forth), Umno will contest," he said.

Therefore, he added, Umno and Barisan Nasional will pick a candidate when the Election Commission fixes a date for the contest.

Mohd Hamdan, 60, had been an elected representative of Permatang Pasir for three terms since 1999. He was also a former state PAS chief for 14 years.

With the seat vacant, the EC will have to call for another by-election within 60 days - the eight of such polls since the March 2008 general election.

Permatang Pasir - which is one of three state seats in PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim's Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency - is the sole PAS seat in Penang.

Discussion with PAS

On another matter, the prime minister also brushed aside the notion that Umno "is too hopeful" to hold talks with arch-rivals PAS.

NONE He said this in response to PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat's statement who recently stated that the Islamic party will never cooperate with Umno at the party level.

“We don't even feel pressured to form a unity government with them. Most importantly, we need to have an approach to resolve any Muslim issues and I believe this will benefit (both parties)," he said.

Najib also said the people in general are supportive of both parties holding talks and discussions.

"Therefore, we welcome any discussion that will lead to Muslim and Malaysian unity. What happens next depends on circumstances," he said.

On a different note, Najib said Umno is satisfied with its performance in the July 14 Manek Urai by-election.

This is based on the post-mortem presented by Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin and Kelantan Umno liaison chief Mustapha Mohamad.

"We are satisfied with all the effort made during the election and we feel that have improved our performance despite the loss," he said.

Umno had lost the seat, regarded as a PAS stronghold, by a mere 65 votes.