PAS concluded it's 56th muktamar (general assembly) today in full fighting spirit, vowing to strengthen itself and mount an offensive to wrest Putrajaya away from the BN.

Party president Abdul Hadi Awang rammed the point home in his winding up speech.

"Do you know Putrajaya? Have you been to Putrajaya? One day we are going to take over Putrajaya," he said, to the delight of the delegates.

The Islamic party's leadership will hold a three-day retreat, one week from today, to look at the suggestions and discussions brought up during the muktamar to strengthen itself for the next general election.

Deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa told this to the thousand-plus delegates when taking his turn winding up during the muktamar at the Islamic Tarbiyah Centre in Pengkalan Chepa Kelantan.

"We will meet to discuss preparations for the upcoming general election. God willing, after Ramadan this year, we will be ready to face the 13th general election," said Nasharuddin.

At the same time PAS will also be rolling out several new initiatives to target specific voting segments which has so far been hard to reach.

‘New voters the key’

Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan revealed his wing’s plan to launch the Movement for new Voters and Members (Gempa) to recruit new party members and register youth voters, both of which will increase PAS’ support base.

The move is aimed at reaching out to the roughly 2.2 million youth who are eligible to vote but who are not on the roll.

Meanwhile PAS land and territory bureau head Mazlan Aliman said that the party will also intensify its efforts to educate the two-million-odd rural Malays, who have potential to give the party momentum to change the course of our nation's political destiny.

"I believe that a big change will happen in the next general election with the new political awareness of rural Malays," he said during his winding up speech.

Mazlan said the National Coalition of Settler's Offspring, which has 47 branches across the nation to fight for the rights of Felda settlers, will provide the necessary mechanism.

PAS info chief Idris Ahmad in turn said that he and his officers will hit the ground to meet with information chiefs of every state from July 24 to August 1.

This is to coordinate and streamline the party's information machinery, so that everyone is on the same page.

Fund injection

PAS national election coordinator Abdul Halim Abdul Rahmah also reiterated that PAS, in conjunction with Pakatan, will intensify its efforts to register more voters.

"This is because 70 percent of voters who do not support BN will most likely support Pakatan," he said, adding that they can no longer depend on their traditional support base.

Abdul Halim added that they are allocating RM29 million to fund the upcoming election campaign, saying the amount is more than sufficient to take over Putrajaya.