PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang today dismissed claims that the Islamic party's election is being tainted by dirty campaigning.

 

"God willing, there is none, whoever uses dirty tactics will not be elected," Hadi told a press conference in Ampang today.

 

This is despite PAS election committee chairperson Asmuni Awi, who is overseeing the electoral process, conceding on Thursday that dirty campaigning was an open secret.

 

When Abdul Hadi was first asked to respond to Asmuni's admission, the PAS president adopted his usual line of pleading ignorance, stating that he had not read any such news.

 

However, when pressed by journalists, Abdul Hadi denied the accusation.

PAS' Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad in a blog posting on Thursday revealed photographs of what appeared to be a publication cataloguing alleged "parasites" in PAS.

The elaborate booklet targeting him and several other progressive PAS leaders was titled, 'Who are the real parasites of PAS?'.

Khalid had also questioned the source of funding to print and distribute the full colour multi-page booklet.

PAS is presently holding its elections at the divisional level in stages before the party's central election slated for June.

Several progressive leaders in PAS have already fallen victim to the campaign with the most notable defeat being former Perak Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.

Nizar, who in the catalogue was labelled 'parasite #7', lost the contest for the Kampar PAS division chief post to a little-known ulama.

He had led the division for 14 years prior to his defeat.