Aside from its traditional battles with Umno, Selangor PAS commissioner Iskandar Abdul Samad today declared that the Islamist party must be ready to face its “new enemy” Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah).
This follows the PAS splinter party's claim that it would be contesting in eight Selangor state seats in the next general election.
“Our (main) threat is Umno but it is not the only one. We also have a new enemy in Amanah. We must defend our seats. If we are not in the (state) government, who will defend Islam?,” said Iskandar in his speech at the Selangor PAS general election convention in Kuala Selangor today.
Amanah was previously allocated eight out of 288 local councillor seats in Selangor, based on an agreement between PKR, DAP and PAS.
Iskandar, meanwhile, also said that PAS intends to contest an additional five seats in Selangor, raising its number of seats contested to 25.
PAS had won in 15 out of 20 seats which it had contested for in the last general election.
Iskandar said the decision is made not because the party feels threatened by Amanah, but because the party's grassroots demand it.
“We will contest. The call by the grassroots is to contest five more seats, not because of the eight (Amanah local council) seats but because of necessity (in the general election).
“PAS has a research department, we are not deciding to contest willy-nilly,” he said, while predicting that the next election will take place on March 2017.
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