KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — PAS Youth chief Khairil Nizam Khirudin asserted that his party is within the Muafakat Nasional (MN) pact with Umno, Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) to ensure the three parties do not overlap during the general election.
He told Sinar Harian in an interview that his party could serve as a bridge to ensure that the best candidates were selected in constituencies where the three were likely to contest.
“We sit with both PN and MN to create a political unity for all parties involved.
“The foundation of this unity is to ensure that in the 15th general election, there will be one-on-one fights against the Pakatan Harapan coalition parties,” he was quoted as saying.
He did not explain how PAS would be able to convince the three parties that all appeal to the Malay-Muslim electorate to agree to this arrangement.
Khairil also did not explain why Umno, PAS, and Bersatu still required PN as all three parties are now effectively partners in the MN pact, after Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced last night that Bersatu will be formally invited to enter.
Seat negotiations between the three for the general election are expected to be testy as they all vie for the same Malay-majority seats in the peninsula.
While all three appear distinct, both PAS and Bersatu are offshoots of Umno. PAS was founded in 1951 by an ulama faction from the Malay nationalist party while Bersatu was only established in 2016 by former Umno president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
