SINGAPORE: Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) must work on winning over non-Malay and non-Muslim voters if the Islamic party is to make greater inroads at the country’s 16th general election (GE16), said its president Abdul Hadi Awang.
The party chief was speaking on Friday (Oct 20) at the opening of PAS’ 69th annual congress.
“We did a post-mortem and we found weaknesses and strengths … among the weaknesses were our failure to get voters who are not Muslims and the insufficient number of seats,” he said, as quoted by the Malay Mail.
In the recent state elections, PAS contested a majority of the seats – 126 out of 245 – winning a total of 105.
This came after a similar strong showing at GE15 in November last year, where PAS became the single-largest entity in Malaysia’s parliament with control of 43 seats to lead opposition coalition Perikatan Nasional (PN).
In the wake of the six state elections, analysts said PAS was now the principal party for the Malays in Malaysia, taking over that mantle from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
But more needs to be done with the party seeking to expand its appeal beyond the northern Malay heartland states of Terengganu, Kelantan, Perlis and Kedah.
Abdul Hadi described the task as an “important and challenging” responsibility that was crucial for the party to form the federal government at the next polls, reported news outlet Free Malaysia Today.
He reiterated that the party’s conservative agenda would not mean that the rights of non-Malays and non-Muslims in Malaysia would be ignored.
He said the party will continue to “preserve freedom of religion and ensure justice”, added the report.
Source: CNA
