GE14 | Former finance minister Daim Zainuddin has predicted that PAS would likely lose grip of Kelantan in the upcoming general election.

In an interview with Nanyang Siang Pau, Daim also stressed that PAS would not fare well in the upcoming polls and will therefore not be a "kingmaker".

He explained that voters see PAS leaders being too close to Umno, which PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and the late Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat had once disapproved of.

"Lately, you can see that the children of three former PAS leaders chose to leave the party.

"There are fissures in the party. They cannot accept what the party has become," Daim was quoted as saying.

He said history has shown that Umno often took advantage of PAS, especially when the former was weak, only to cast the latter aside when they were no longer needed.

"It was the same with Act 355... The (PAS) leaders knew this was Umno's political game.

"Regretfully, they gave their supporters false hope," he said, in reference to Hadi's attempt to amend Syariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 to enhance the syariah court penalties.

Although the Najib-administration had allowed the motion to be tabled in 2016, it was never voted on and remains in limbo. 

Meanwhile, Daim predicted that it was unlikely that Umno and PAS would form a unity government.

He said Umno had to consider the feeling of other non-Muslim-based parties in BN, including those from East Malaysia.