PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has warned the party's candidates in the Taman Medan and Dengkil state seats that they will be sacked if they do not withdraw from the polls.

This came on the heels of his decision yesterday that PAS would make way for Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) candidates in these Selangor seats, to honour their agreement not to be involved in contests that could split the vote for the opposition front, Barisan Alternatif.

Letters were sent to the two candidates yesterday, stating the party's stand and instructing them to effect their withdrawal. However, there has been no response. The deadline for withdrawal is at midnight today.

"If they fail to withdraw, we will take disciplinary action and dismiss them from the party," Abdul Hadi said after visiting the PAS election operations centre in Setianwangsa, Kuala Lumpur.

PAS' Ghazali Shaari is scheduled to contest in Taman Medan , against Keadilan's Wan Razali Wan Kadir, Barisan Nasional's (BN) Abdul Wahab Ibrahim and independent candidate Abdul Rahman Seeni Mohideen.

Haslin Hassan will stand in Dengkil against Keadilan's Mohamad Sahar Mat Din and BN''s Mohd Sharif Jajang. Both seats were won by Umno in the 1999 election.

Supporters 'unhappy'

PAS Selangor liaison secretary Norman Taha said today that the party has revoked its endorsement of the two candidates and informed the Election Commission (EC) accordingly. The two have yet to contact the party with a response.

"We have given them each a letter informing them of the party's decision and the consequences of not heeding the instruction. I have yet to talk to them personally. I tried contacting them, but someone else answered the phone," he said when contacted.

He expressed the fear that the two may be influenced by "outside elements with bad intentions".

"I believe that if I can talk to them personally, there will be no difficulty in making them understand that PAS has committed itself to the BA and that it has to respect the pact," he said.

Norman admitted that party members in the two constituencies are split over the decision and that some have expressed unhappiness.

"Of course if we look at the party machinery and members in these constituencies, PAS is stronger than Keadilan...after all Keadilan is only five years old while we have been around for 52 years. But in a coalition there must be give- and- take as well as co-operation," he said.

'Fear of change'

Earlier, about 150 party members and supporters gathered to meet Abdul Hadi during his visit to the operations centre in Kampung Baru.

In a brief but fiery speech, he called on Malaysians to be "brave enough to abandon the corrupt administration of Barisan Nasional (BN) and to vote for BA for a better future".

"In Spain, the people's dissatisfaction with the government's Iraq war policy was enough to motivate them to vote in the Socialist party. In Papua New Guinea, corruption scandals have led the people to change the government," he said.

"Unfortunately, even with corruption and mismanagement in Malaysia - except in Kelantan and Terengganu - the people still fear change."

He said this may be due to BN's propaganda which has instilled the fear that voting for the opposition would result in the absence of economic development, which he described as "a total lie".

"In Terengganu, although we lost RM20 million when we abolished road tolls and the assessment charge on residential property, we still managed to decrease the poverty level by increasing the welfare allocation by 100 percent," he said.

He further claimed that the state, under his stewardship from 1999, has increased foreign investment, improved logging revenues, and allocated land to those yet to own houses.