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Reports: PAS sec-gen claims Umno chief offered Hadi 40 seats for GE15

Malay Mail
Malay Mail

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — Umno offered PAS 40 parliamentary seats to contest in the 15th general election last year, according to the Islamist party’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan.

Takiyuddin claimed the offer was made by Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to his PAS counterpart Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang on condition that the latter cease cooperation with Bersatu, news portal Malaysia Gazette reported yesterday.

“PAS president met with Umno president and was given the condition, if want to be together with Umno, leave Bersatu,” Takiyuddin was quoted as saying last Thursday night at a Perikatan Nasional (PN) event in Sungai Besar, Selangor.

He reportedly said this was an “untold story”, and that PAS did not accept the offer in view of the spirit of uniting Muslims.

“Alhamdulilah, [when] we are together with Bersatu and Perikatan Nasional, PAS not only obtained dozens of seats but 43 seats, more than Umno's offer,” he was quoted as saying.

Malaysia Gazette also reported Takiyuddin saying at the same event that PAS met Umno before GE15 last November 19 in an effort to unite Malay Muslims in the country but was rebuffed.

PAS and Umno had signed a political pact called Muafakat Nasional after GE14 in September 2019 to take on the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH), but this alliance crumbled before GE15.

Umno, which leads the Barisan Nasional coalition that lost GE14, had won big in several state elections after that and decided to go solo in GE15, but was soundly defeated and gained only 30 parliamentary seats out of 222.

The Umno-led BN is now part of a coalition government led by PH chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, helping to break the GE15 deadlock.

PAS has recently been raising issues surrounding GE15 ahead of the elections in six states, half of which it controls, with the other half held by PH.

Most recently, Hadi has claimed that certain individuals made offers to PAS to join Anwar’s “unity government” after GE15.