GE15: Pas to negotiate 27 critical seats with BN
ALOR SETAR - Pas will have negotiations with Barisan Nasional (BN) involving 27 Parliament seats that eee considered critical throughout the country.
Pas Deputy President Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the 27 seats were the mix of seats won by Pas and Umno in the previous elections.
He said the negotiations were done to avoid a three-way collision that would be detrimental to both parties instead of providing victory for Pakatan Harapan (PH).
"For example, if we want to take Selangor, I think Pas, Perikatan Nasional (PN) and BN needs to sit together.
“There are 27 seats that are critical if we were to clash it would be a loss for PN and BN too, it is up to them. Pas is open in this matter.
"In Selangor the seats owned by PH now, neither Pas or Umno won it. If a political consensus can be reached, we expect that we can take those areas, for example would be the Raub and Bentong seats," he said at a press conference after officiating the 63rd Pas Central Youth Council Annual Meeting at Alor Setar on Thursday.
However, Ibrahim said the matter had not been proposed to BN leaders and would be done as soon as possible through the PN Supreme Leadership Council (MPT).
"Negotiations with BN have not been made based on relationships in the context with the Federal government, there are Umno, Pas and Bersatu parties with good relations.
"That is if they (BN) agrees however, the party is prepared with any possibilities from the elections preparations Pas is prepared, just those 27 seats," he said.
He said the parliament seats involved covered a few states however, refused to reveal in detail at the time.
"I would like to state that Pas supports the unity of the ummah as the core political consensus," he stated.
Ibrahim said negotiations between Pas and BN would be done in the context of the Muafakat Nasional (MN) framework because the idea had not been dissolved until now.
"For us the chance of maintaining this platform is based on the importance of Islam and Malays as well as the future of the country.
"There are still many issues that we need to look into together. The platform is already available.
“If in the elections Umno had made a decision and we are forced to compete with each other we will compete. That is usual in politics," he said again.
He said the MN platform is the best option to avoid any clash that could bring a loss to PN and BN.
"The platform is available, we can use it. it is among the options, if not accepted then we will compete.
“These politics we would have to compete, but we do not want to win without any benefits," he stated.
Ibrahim said the negotiations with MN would hopefully be finalised before the 15th General Election (GE15) without placing a specific period.
"In order to make the decision, there is a period of one month whether to be with us. During that period I will give the time for us to clarify each of our directions first.
"We have a PN level committee that would always have discussions before being brought up in the next meeting," he said.
Ibrahim said PN seat distribution committee had started their first discussion and would be followed by a few other negotiations before being finalised.
"Pas will not discuss with PH because the party has made the decision that Pas would not be together in any negotiations with PH to face GE15," he said.
"The distribution of PN seats will be discussed in the seat distribution committee. The first meeting has been held and the next meeting will be as soon as possible.
"The party should give the mandate first, the committee looks at it as a whole before being appointed by each of the parties to be decided together," he said.
He said for now the negotiations had ran smoothly and were confident the quota for the distribution would be finalised after a few more meetings were held.
