KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — PAS said today it will run in at least 130 out of 222 parliament seats in the 14th general election, exceeding the number of seats contested by Umno in the last polls.
News portal Malaysiakini reported PAS research centre director Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki as saying that the final number of federal seats Gagasan Sejahtera, which comprises PAS, Parti Cinta Malaysia and Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia, will collectively contest in the upcoming election has yet to be decided.
“PAS will contest in no less than 130 parliamentary seats. The remaining will be filled by Gagasan Sejahtera component parties, NGOs and eminent persons who stand with the coalition,” Zuhdi was quoted telling reporters at an event in Batu Caves here.
PAS won 21 out of 73 parliament seats it contested in the 13th general election in 2013, though several have since defected to splinter party, Parti Amanah Negara.
Umno won 88 out of 121 federal seats it ran in Election 2013.
The most number of parliament seats that PAS ever contested was 98 in 1986, of which it only won one. The Islamist party’s best electoral performance was in 1999 when it bagged 27 federal seats as part of Barisan Alternatif.
Most of the general elections since 1959 saw PAS winning less than 10 parliament seats.
Elections are an expensive process in Malaysia, with candidates required to put down a deposit of RM15,000 for a federal seat, including for campaign material cleanup. The law sets a campaign expenditure limit of RM200,000 per candidate for a parliament seat, though there is no cap on spending by political parties.
