Kedah Umno leader lambasts PAS over 'confusion' and lack of unity

 

A Kedah Umno leader has accused PAS of being confused about their strategy for the upcoming 15th general election (GE15).

According to Kedah BN communications chief Shaiful Hazizy Zainol Abidin (above), the Islamist party's leadership can't even decide on the number of seats they want to contest in the polls.

"PAS election chief (Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor) confidently said they will contest 80 parliamentary seats in GE15, but the party's deputy president (Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man) said they are just eyeing that many seats and the number is not definite.

"A state leader and a federal-level minister contradicting each other shows that there is no unity in the party's top leadership. Their craze for power has gone beyond remedy," he said in a statement, referring to Sanusi, who is also Kedah menteri besar, and Tuan Ibrahim, who is environment and water minister.

Shaiful added that it is a tall order for PAS to win 40 parliamentary seats when the fact is they can probably only win about 18 out of the 158 seats it contested in the last general election.

He claimed that statistics showed PAS candidates lost the highest number of election deposits - in 50 parliamentary seats, and 96 state seats, involving a sum of RM1.34 million.

"Have they not learnt from past mistakes? They were free to release statements as they wished when they contested solo in the previous elections, but now that they are a part of Perikatan Nasional, any official statement has to be released after much deliberation.

"I see PAS is now in a dilemma on which side to take to benefit them," said Shaiful.

"I believe that with the confusion, compounded by the lack of unity, PAS can never lead the country. The rakyat is highly unlikely to choose a party which uses religion for political mileage to lead them," he added. - Mkini