PAS is eyeing a return to power in Kedah and the Islamist party is planning to rule alone this time, instead of being part of any coalition involving either Barisan Nasional (BN) or Pakatan Harapan (PH).<\/p>\n
Kedah PAS commissioner Ahmad Fakhruddin Sheikh Fakhrurazi rejected rumours that his party was toying with a partnership with rival Umno.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur fight has always been with Umno, but we will never want a coalition government because PAS wants to win it all,\u201d he told Malay Mail in an interview at the Kompleks PAS here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unlikely that we will form a coalition government with them as we plan to win the state alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
To this end, he said PAS was working to regain the trust of voters, claiming that this was beginning to manifest during outreach efforts.<\/p>\n
In 2008, PAS won Kedah as part of the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat pact.<\/p>\n
The late Tan Sri Azizan Abdul Razak was made mentri besar, but issues with his administration allowed BN to regain the state in 2013.<\/p>\n
From 2008 to 2013, the state chapter of PAS was plagued by infighting while residents also complained about Kedah\u2019s apparent lack of development.<\/p>\n
Ahmad Fakhruddin claimed that the factionalism was now a thing of the past and put it down to minor conflicts among some members.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some who had differing opinions from PAS and they are no longer around, there\u2019s nothing stopping us now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Responding to reports of discontentment among the party grassroots stemming from rumours of a possibly collaboration with BN, he said there was no evidence of this.<\/p>\n
Ahmad Fakhruddin also insisted the party\u2019s support would not be cannibalised by PAS offshoot Amanah or leached away by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad\u2019s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir is a Kedah native and reportedly still enjoys a significant degree of goodwill in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrassroot support in PAS is not dwindling; the number of those leaving PAS to join parties like Amanah (Parti Amanah Negara) is as little as two per cent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose numbers are least significant when we consider the strong support we have from those in Kedah who believed in our cause since the beginning.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ahmad Fakhruddin said that with an effective election machinery and campaigning, his party was assured of victory.<\/p>\n
Among others, he said his party planned to tout its five years\u2019 governing the state to show voters that PAS could govern effectively.<\/p>\n
PAS also governs Kelantan alone and has done so since 1990, but the east coast state is among the least economically developed in the peninsula and Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Despite severing ties with the PH pact, Ahmad Fakhruddin also believed his party could secure multi-racial backing.<\/p>\n
\u201cFence-sitters from the Chinese, Indian and Siamese community will play a pivotal role in ensuring PAS\u2019 success in Kedah,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is because they have seen how we function as the ruling party in the past, and many undecided voters are sick of BN\u2019s play on politics and they want change.\u201d<\/p>\n
BN currently holds Kedah with just one seat more than the 19 needed for smallest possible majority to form the state government.<\/p>\n
PAS is the second-best represented party, with seven seats. The remaining are held by the PH components. – MMail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PAS is eyeing a return to power in Kedah and the Islamist party is planning to rule alone this time, instead of being part of any coalition involving either Barisan Nasional (BN) or Pakatan Harapan (PH). Kedah PAS commissioner Ahmad Fakhruddin Sheikh Fakhrurazi rejected rumours that his party was toying with a partnership with rival […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":{"id":66785,"alt_text":"","caption":"KOTA SARAG SEMUT 04\/02\/18: PAS Kedah Commisioner Dr Ahmad Fakhruddin Fakhrurazi said that are concentrating on winning the 14th General Election during an interview at PAS Kedah Complex. PICTURE BY SAYUTI ZAINUDIN","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":800,"height":548,"file":"2018\/04\/Ahmad_Fakhruddin_Fakhrurazi_0204_1.jpg","filesize":91259,"sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"The Malay Mail Sdn Bhd","camera":"","caption":"KOTA SARAG SEMUT 04\/02\/18: PAS Kedah Commisioner Dr Ahmad Fakhruddin Fakhrurazi said that are concentrating on winning the 14th General Election during an interview at PAS Kedah Complex. PICTURE BY SAYUTI ZAINUDIN","created_timestamp":"1522627200","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"MR 20180402 KEDAH PAS","orientation":"1","keywords":["PAS","PRU","ELECTION","KEDAH"]}},"post":66784,"source_url":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Ahmad_Fakhruddin_Fakhrurazi_0204_1.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66786,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66784\/revisions\/66786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}