Rashid wouldn’t have won his seat without PAS’s help, says Bersatu man

 

Bersatu information chief Razali Idris said the outcome of the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election should not be used to determine the level of support for Bersatu as the state seat is a PH stronghold.

PETALING JAYA: A Bersatu leader has defended his party’s ties with PAS after it was suggested they would stand to lose more support if it maintained its relationship with the Islamic party.

Bersatu information chief Razali Idris said the outcome of the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election should not be used to determine the level of support for Bersatu as the state seat was a Pakatan Harapan stronghold.

Earlier today, FMT reported Selat Klang assemblyman Abdul Rashid Asari of Bersatu as saying that support for his party would continue to dwindle the longer it remained a PAS ally.

Rashid, who now backs Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari, said any loss in support could be pinned on PAS which he labelled as being “too extreme”.

The former Selangor Bersatu chief cited PAS’s narrative that it was “haram” not to vote as an example of their extreme views, adding that the Malay community, and some of PAS members, were not fond of such statements.

Razali said Rashid had won his seat with the help of PAS.

He said Perikatan Nasional could have wrested control of Selangor from PH in the last state election if it had won an additional seven seats.

“But we denied PH a two-thirds majority. So we need to ask Rashid how he was able to win his seat. It was because PAS had backed him,” he told FMT.

Rashid was first elected as Selat Klang assemblyman in 2018 when Bersatu was a component of the PH coalition.

He defended his seat in the state election last year, defeating Umno’s Roslee Abd Hamid with a 8,325-vote majority.

Last Saturday, PH’s Pang Sock Tao won the by-election with a majority of 3,869 votes. She polled a total of 14,000 votes, defeating PN candidate Khairul Azhari Saut (10,131), Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s Hafizah Zainuddin (152) and independent candidate Nyau Ke Xin (188).

Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki later revealed that PH had captured six of the eight Malay-majority electoral districts in Kuala Kubu Baharu won by PN in last year’s state election. - FMT