The Malaysian Insight

THE Kelantan and Terengganu chapters of Umno will not share seats with Muafakat Nasional partner PAS in the next elections, said sources.

“Not even if Umno headquarters tells us to,” a party lawmaker in the east coast told The Malaysian Insight.

“There’s no way we can share seats with them as both parties are strong in Kelantan and Terengganu.”

He said the Umno and PAS partnership in Muafakat Nasional extended only to holding joint programmes.

“There is no agreement on seat sharing when it comes to elections.”

The party leader was responding to PAS and Perikatan Nasional’s recent invitations to Umno to negotiate for seats ahead of a general election.

On Saturday, Perikatan Nasional election chief Mohamed Azmin Ali urged Umno leaders to sit down and talk over the 15 seats that the party lost to Bersatu when its members defected after the last elections. PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man has also urged the parties to close ranks.

Umno has recently opted out of a working pact with the splinter party in the polls.

Its senior leaders such as Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi have also begun questioning the party’s alliance with PAS, which had joined the Perikatan Nasional coalition over its objections.

Another Umno leader who preferred to be anonymous said the MN partnership has brought no benefit to the party,

“Although PAS and Umno are in the same team on paper, there is very little sharing between us.

“Take Kelantan and Terengganu, for instance. Although we have asked to be included in the state governments, none of our assemblymen have been appointed,” said the Kelantan leader.

Absolute majority

The Kelantan and Terengganu governments are unique in that they command an absolute majority in the respective state assemblies.

In Kelantan, PAS holds 37 of the 45 state seats. Umno has seven and Bersatu, one.

PAS is the sole ruling party in both east coast states, where the offices of the menteri besar and executive councillors are reserved exclusively for its members.

On top of that, in Kelantan, both the Speaker Abdullah Ya’kub and his deputy Abdul Fattah Mahmood are also PAS members.

After the elections in 2018, PAS nominated a party member to the 32-seat Terengganu state assembly. The appointee, Yahaya Ali, was a state exco in the PAS government of 1999-2004, and is now the house speaker.

The Kelantan government enjoys no opposition at all while the Terengganu opposition is led by the state Umno chief and former menteri besar Ahmad Said. – March 21, 2021.