PAS vice-president Mustafa Ali today said his party will pursue its election petitions in four more states despite its petitions in Kelantan and Terengganu being struck out by the courts.

He was responding to the Kuala Terengganu High Court's decision yesterday to strike out nine petitions filed by PAS and Barisan Nasional in the state.

Mustafa also brushed aside the existence of a 'gentleman's agreement' between PAS and Umno to forego their respective petitions in Terengganu and Kelantan, with the exception of the Pasir Puteh parliamentary seat.

(Pasir Puteh, which due to a technical error in data entry, was declared as being won by PAS, when it should have been BN-Umno. The decision was reversed by the Kota Baru High Court and BN declared the winner on June 23. The court struck out eight other election petitions filed by both BN and PAS challenging the outcome of seven state seats and one parliamentary seats in Kelantan.)

However, the PAS leader said there could have been an agreement between the lawyers of both parties which he was unaware of

"No, no, no. As far as I know, no deal was cut. If discussions were made between the lawyers, then I don't know. But on a party basis, there has been no deal," he said when contacted.

Going ahead

Apart from striking out the eight petitions by PAS and one by BN yesterday, the Kuala Terengganu High Court also ordered all deposits be returned to the candidates.

Mustafa said the court decisions would not deter PAS from going ahead with its election petitions in four more states: five in Selangor, two in Johor, one in Perlis, and one in Kedah.

"We have done all we can (with the Terengganu petitions). But the courts came back with this decision to strike out our cases.

"We're not sure what decision to expect for the future election petitions, but we're still going ahead with them," he said.

In the March 21 polls, PAS suffered a heavy defeat, losing control of Terengganu while clinging on to its traditional stronghold Kelantan with a wafer-thin majority.