PAS member of Parliament for Sik Shahnon Ahmad said today that he would be happy to serve another term if the party requires him to contest the seat in the coming general election.

Contrary to what has been reported, Shahnon told malaysiakini that he is physically healthy and has no problem discharging his duties as an MP for the constituency in Kedah.

Over the past few months, Malay dailies have reported that Shahnon who penned the controversial political satires ' Shit ' and ' Anjing ' was gravely ill and may not contest in the next election.

He said that the people in Sik are happy with his performance and this is evident in the increase of PAS branches in the are to more than 90 at present.

Shahnon won the seat in the 1999 general election after defeating the then Minister in Prime Minister's Department, Abdul Hamid Othman by 335 votes.

PAS also won the two state seats in the Sik Parliamentary constituency Jeneri and Belantek.

'Phantom voters'

Despite the impressive inroads, Shahnon said party workers must work doubly hard to counter efforts by Barisan Nasional to recapture Sik in the coming general election.

He said there were claims that local Umno leaders are attempting to bring phantom voters from Patani, Thailand.

"We are aware that several Umno leaders from Sik are frequenting Patani lately, and we are now monitoring the situation closely," he added.

Meanwhile, he said Umno also has gained from the Election Commission's new re-delineation exercise which saw two Umno strongholds Telui Kanan and Tupai which were previously part of Jenari, now incorporated into Belantek.

Shahnon argued that since more Malays are supporting PAS, Umno is now trying to court Chinese and Siamese voters.

"Umno has deploy this approach during the Pendang, to recapture the constituency during the recent by-election," he said.

However, he said, with more than 90 percent Malays in Sik supporting PAS, the votes of non Muslim which makeup of less than eight percent would make little different in the coming general election.