PAS won’t back Umno in Semenyih polls, claims Dr M
SEMENYIH POLLS | Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has claimed that PAS will not support Umno in the upcoming Semenyih by-election.
This, Mahathir said, was communicated to him by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang during their meeting yesterday.
“In this by-election, PAS will not support Umno...
SEMENYIH POLLS | Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has claimed that PAS will not support Umno in the upcoming Semenyih by-election.
This, Mahathir said, was communicated to him by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang during their meeting yesterday.
“In this by-election, PAS will not support Umno.
“But there is also a written agreement which was signed,” he told reporters when asked today about what transpired in his meeting with Hadi.
Malaysiakini is attempting to contact PAS for comment.
The Harapan chairperson’s comments come just hours after PAS representatives accompanied BN’s candidate for the Semenyih by-election, Zakaria Hanafi, to be nominated.
This also contradicts Umno acting president Mohamad Hasan’s statement this morning, who said PAS and Umno will be working closely together throughout the Semenyih campaign, to the extent of sharing responsibilities.
Furthermore, PAS and Umno youth wings previously set up a joint committee and said they would campaign together in the Semenyih by-election.
"We will coordinate our machinery to carry out joint activities at the polling district level," Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki had said.
The political cooperation between the two opposition parties has been seen as a success following BN’s win in the recent Cameron Highlands by-election.
Hadi’s version of events
In Hadi’s version of events, which was posted in a video on his Facebook page yesterday, he made no mention of PAS reneging on its support for Umno.
Instead, he said his discussions with Mahathir had mostly been about administrative issues.
“We mostly discussed the coordination between the state and the federal governments.
“And also issues like the Economic Action Council, and projects under the federal and state governments, so there are no clashes,” he had said.
However, Hadi stated that the Semenyih by-election would be “different” from the polls in Cameron Highlands.
“Semenyih is different from Cameron. In Cameron, it was PAS against DAP.
“In Semenyih, I'm not saying it's about race, but it is a contest between Malays and Malays.”
When asked if PAS would back BN’s campaign in Semenyih, Hadi reportedly said “itu akan kita lihat” (that we will see).
“We will get detailed information from Selangor PAS.
“What’s important is we want the position of the Malays to be strong in the government,” he added.
Hadi stated that it was PAS that had requested to meet Mahathir at the latter’s office at Yayasan Al-Bukhari in Kuala Lumpur.
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