The campaign to replace PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang with party veteran Ahmad Awang is picking up steam, after the latter received enough nominations to contest the Islamist party's top post.

And his supporters are fully confident the Ahmad can save the party, central committee member Khalid Samad said, retelling a conversation he had with an Ahmad supporter after the recent PAS Shah Alam annual meeting.

"Ahmad had saved PAS in the 2008 general elections. If it wasn't for his stern stance, Perak PAS may have joined forces with Umno to form the state government.

"Ahmad can unite PAS members, and the party itself with Pakatan. We should give him a chance," Khalid wrote on his blog, quoting the Ahmad supporter.

Khalid said he told the supporter that Hadi too had objected to a PAS-Umno union during the Perak constitutional crisis, but the supporter still insisted the party needed a better leader than the incumbent president.

"Nevermind YB (Khalid), the annual division meeting is over. That is my opinion. PAS needs a president who is smarter at planning and strategising, good at making friends, and is honest with them.

"But most important is that, as the chief executive, a president must be prepared to be criticised and reprimanded. It should not be considered a "sin", not to agree with his views, and it should not be wrong to correct his mistakes if there is any," the Ahmad supporter told Khalid.

Ahmad ( pix, above ) has received the minimum three nominations to contest the party polls in early June, having been the presidential choice of the Parit Sulong, Jelebu, and Bukit Gelugor divisions.

Hadi, meanwhile, had received 22 nominations to defend his post, while PAS vice-president Husam Musa has received backing from eight divisions.

Khalid's Shah Alam division has nominated Hadi for president in a close race which saw the incumbent getting 78 votes, compared to 72 votes for Ahmad to be nominated instead.

But over 150 divisions have yet to meet and nominate their candidates for the party polls this coming June.

Grassroots want politician, not Islamic jurist

In his blog, Khalid had concluded that PAS grassroots acknowledged Hadi's knowledge in Islamic law, but want a leader who is better at politics.

They also questioned Hadi's losses in Terengganu during the last general elections, his inability to accept criticism as well as failure to settle infighting in PAS and Pakatan.

Besides this, the grassroots were also taken aback by Hadi's ( left ) attacks against PKR President Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail during the Selangor crisis, and his accusations that certain PAS leaders were 'brokers' and 'barua' (fixers).

"I'm sorry but to this day I can't accept it. He has no evidence, but he simply made the accusations openly.

"When I came back from last year's muktamar (the PAS annual meet), my friend from Umno asked me, am I a barua or a broker? That really pissed me off," the Ahmad supporter told Khalid.