Malaysia: Johor polls: PAS not satisfied with Umno’s 4 seat offer

• Negotiations between Umno and PAS over rights to field candidates for the Johor legislative assembly broke down because the latter is seeking a bigger slice of the pie.
• Umno only wants PAS to field four candidates, but the latter is claiming seats that BN could not win during the 2018 election. There are 56 seats in the Johor legislative assembly.
• BN, the coalition which Umno leads, won 19 seats and in the process, failed to retain 18 seats during the 2018 election, all of which were picked up by Pakatan Harapan.
• Speaking to Malaysiakini, deputy PAS president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said his party’s strategy was superior because it would “ensure” Harapan’s defeat.
• “Offering us just four out of 56 seats, in my mind, is not a good idea. PAS is only seeking seats that were not won by BN, especially seats held by Amanah (a Harapan component party). Our goal is to ensure Harapan doesn’t return to power in Johor,” he said.
• If PAS was eyeing all the seats which BN could not win, that means PAS was eyeing 37 candidates. During the 2018 election, PAS fielded 40 candidates, of which only one won.
• Johor PAS leadership is seeking a meeting with the state Umno chief Hasni Mohammad to discuss the upcoming legislative assembly elections.
• This comes after Hasni publicly expressed Johor Umno’s wish to go into the election on its own, an indication that the two parties will be pitted against each other again despite the Muafakat Nasional pact.
• According to a report by PAS mouthpiece Harakahdaily, Johor PAS commissioner Abdullah Husin has requested to meet Hasni but the Johor menteri besar has yet to be able to accommodate his time for PAS.
• Abdullah also reportedly said that Hasni’s statement was only the state Umno leadership’s opinion and any decision on cooperation would still be made by the national Umno and PAS leadership.

External Link : https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/608324

External Link : https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/608321