PAS has blamed its massive electoral losses in March on the loss of votes from young Malays, saying that they had been won over by Umno's sometimes dubious tactics.

Party president Abdul Hadi Awang said this yesterday after chairing a central committee meeting to discuss the findings and recommendations of the recently completed post-mortem report on the general election.

"PAS' Youth wing is aware that we are lacking young voters and that most of the new voters are held by Umno," he told a press conference.

"We have also seen how Umno is able,through the government and Umno Puteri, to penetrate universities and schools which we (as a political party) are prohibited from entering. This affects the new voters."

He said PAS could do little to break Barisan Nasional's monopoly over young voters beyond working to ensure that its own message reaches more people at the grassroots.

Abdul Hadi dismissed suggestions that a change in strategy is necessary to attract younger voters to the party's ideology and aims.

"Our strategy is correct. We merely need more time and to reach more people at the grassroots level," he said.

It was earlier reported that PAS had lost as many as 60,000 votes from young Malays, an electoral bloc said to have been critical to PAS' defeat in Terengganu and its narrow victory in Kelantan.

Abdul Hadi also insisted that, contrary to repeated assertions, the post-mortem committee had found no evidence of a significant electoral switch due to PAS' espousal of conservative religious views on such issues as women's rights and other fundamental liberties.

"Our core group of voters did not diminish, but in some places even increased, particularly in Johor and Negri Sembilan. We even received votes in some non-Muslim areas. In Kemaman, our votes increased by three percent."

Collusion alleged

Abdul Hadi also claimed that other tactics employed by Umno included its collusion with such government agencies as the National Registration Department and the Election Commission.

He alleged that Umno was able to determine the number of new voters, and influence the transfer of voters to and from designated 'PAS areas' in order to neutralise PAS predominance.

"In Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, for example, the percentage of voters was unusually high, almost 80 percent. In other states, voter turnout was at most 70 percent or even just 60 percent."

In some places, election laws were often breached when the time period allowed for voter registration was extended to accommodate more Umno supporters, Abdul Hadi added.

"Whenever they felt that they did not have sufficient votes, they extended the time. This is a breach of electoral laws...this is illegal," he said.

Abdul Hadi said PAS remained committed to a democratic, albeit longer, processes of gaining popular support.

"We are dependent on the transparency of the Election Commission and the Anti-Corruption Agency. If they are not transparent, then it goes back to honesty and sincerity towards the practice of democracy. PAS will remain honest in these things, we will continue to resort to elections (to achieve our goals)."

Abdul Hadi said the findings of the post-mortem report would be presented to, and discussed with, party members at a munaqashah (convention) from Dec 18-19.