VIDEO | 3.20min

PKR will discuss with PAS who will contest the Pengkalan Kubor seat, which fell vacant last week, after Kelantan PAS expressed interest in fielding a candidate.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim ( right) said that both parties should discuss the matter, as PKR had contested the seat in the 2013 general election.

“It is only appropriate for us to discuss. That’s our way of doing things,” he said, after the end of the second day of the party’s Congress today.

He was responding to PAS’ Muslimat wing’s urging that the Pengkalan Kubor state seat be given to PAS, after it was contested and lost by PKR in the last two general elections.

Its chief, Siti Zailah Mohd Yusof (right) said that it was time to give the constituency a “breath of fresh air”, Sinar Harian reported.

This comes after former PKR Pengkalan Kubor candidate Saharun Ibrahim claimed that the party had lost the seat in the last general election because of problems in working with an “allied party”.

He illustrated his point by likening votes to durians that PKR had worked hard to harvest, but mysteriously disappeared.

“I kept the durians in a room and counted them, and I found that we had more fruits than the other side. However, when elections came, we had fewer durians.

“I entered the room and saw that the floor of the room where we had kept our durians had been broken into by one of our own,” he told delegates at the PKR party congress today.

Saharun was speaking in his capacity as the Kelantan representative in debating the party president’s speech at the congress.

He did not name the “allied party” but was most likely referring to PAS, which is dominant in the state.

'Didn't go as planned'

Pengkalan Kubor falls within the PAS-controlled Tumpat parliamentary constituency. The three other state constituencies in Tumpat are also PAS-controlled, in addition to the Kelantan state assembly.

In last year's polls, Saharun faced Umno’s Noor Zahidi Omar and independent candidate Izat Bukhary Ismail Bukhary.

Noor Zahidi won with a 1,736-vote majority, but died of cancer three days ago.

Saharun urged his party to find ways to seek the cooperation of its partners so as to ensure victory at the impending by-election.

He also insisted that PKR should be the Pakatan Rakyat party to contest in the polls.

Saharun claimed that the 8,438 votes PKR had garnered in the last election shows that it already has support in the constituency with no signs to the contrary.

He said he had expect to win the election, but the final results proved otherwise.

“Since this is an official function and I would prefer to be polite, I shall surmise that we did not win because of a technical error related to our relations with our allied party.

“Despite what we had planned, turned out it didn’t go according to the plan,” he said.

Azmin: PKR-PAS conflict 'isolated'

Meanwhile, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali believes that PAS and PKR’s relations in Terengganu and Kelantan can be resolved within the Pakatan Rakyat framework.

Azmin (right) was responding to the grouses aired by both Kelantan and Terengganu PKR delegates against PAS.

“We respect their views but our responsibility is to ensure that Pakatan Rakyat remains strong.

“I don’t view it as a national problem. It is an isolated one that can be resolved accordingly.

“It is the delegates’ views and we cannot prevent them from voicing them. I can give assurance that the matter can be resolved with the Pakatan Rakyat spirit,” he said.