KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang openly voiced his support today for Datuk Seri Najib Razak to remain in power, saying there was no reason for him to step down as Prime Minister as he was democratically elected.

The PAS president was quoted by The Star Online as saying that Najib should be given a chance to finish his term as PM.

“He should not succumb to pressure and he should be allowed to solve the problems he is facing.

“I agree with him that he should not to step down and I must say that he should be given a chance to finish his term,” Hadi was quoted saying.

Hadi added that it was pointless to pressure Najib to step down due the controversies the Umno president was allegedly involved in such as the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

“It is a shame to pressure him to step down as we should practice a healthy democracy system,” the Marang MP said.

Hadi also said pressuring Najib to step down was the repeat of a previous scenario which took place during the leadership of the previous prime ministers.

“This is not entirely new. Before 1MBD, we also had problems with Perwaja (Steel Sdn Bhd) and Port Klang Free Zone, just to name a few,” Hadi added.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has repeatedly called for Najib’s resignation, insisting that he has no choice but to continue pushing for the latter’s removal because of the 1MDB controversy.

Dr Mahathir, the country’s longest serving former prime minister, has been at the forefront of the on-going attacks against Najib’s leadership, even going public with his demand that the prime minister resigns before BN loses the next general election.

Last night, Najib announced after meeting with Umno’s top leaders that the party’s entire supreme council has thrown its support behind him and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.