PAS may contest 100 seats, targeting victory in 40

PAS information chief Nasrudin Hassan said party may contest in more than 100 parliamentary constituencies in the next 14th general election, but believes it can win at least 40.

PAS now holds 14 of the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.

"We may place candidates for 100 (parliamentary) seats but we target that 40 of those will be won or are seats which we can easily win.

"Besides that, we need to win an additional 60 to 80 seats depending on the strength of our party machinery," he told reporters at Bukit Damansara today.

He said PAS can still emerge victorious in three-corner fights, against prevailing belief within political circles that such a situation would favour ruling coalition Barisan Nasional.

"It is not necessarily the case that three corner fights will win big against Umno and BN. Things are different and there have been political developments since the previous election.

"PAS sees this as a big opportunity to move forward and win many seats in Parliament in the next polls," he said.

PAS names nine FT seats it will contest

At the same event, Federal Territories PAS vowed to contest nine seats in the 14th general election - Titiwangsa, Putrajaya, Labuan, Bandar Tun Razak, Wangsa Maju, Setiawangsa, Lembah Pantai, Batu and Segambut. The rest are held by BN.

PAS either did not contest or lost in these seats in the 13th general election.

"The decision to contest the nine seats is in line with the syura council's decision to cancel the political cooperation with PKR," he said.

Wangsa Maju, Lembah Pantai and Batu are held by PKR MPs Tan Kee Kwong, Nurul Izzah Anwar and Tian Chua while Segambut is held by DAP's Lim Lip Eng. Bandar Tun Razak was won by Abdul Khalid Ibrahim on the PKR ticket, but is now an Independent MP. The other seats are held by BN.

"We believe there is greater support for PAS in the Malay Muslim community, and believe we can still gain votes from the non-Muslims," he said.

For example in the seat of Segambut, PAS is expected to win the Muslim vote as well as non-Muslims who are disenchanted with the DAP.

Segambut has 53 percent Chinese voters, 33 percet Malay votes and 12 percent Indian voters.- Mkini