Mustapha: No sabotage by PAS, not sure about the rest
By Rahmah Ghazali, Free Malaysia Today
KUALA LUMPUR: PAS secretary-general Mustapha Ali is certain that his party did not sabotage the campaign of PKR’s defeated candidate Zaid Ibrahim in the recent crucial by-election in Hulu Selangor.
But he’s not sure about the others in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
Speaking to reporters at the party headquarters here, the veteran leader said the Islamic party had deployed 60% of its manpower to assist and strengthen the PKR’s election machinery.
“It’s not that I am looking down on PKR by saying this, but our machinery had helped strengthen the party a lot. The candidate himself had also acknowledged our assistance,” said Mustapha.
However, he said he was not sure if the sabotage was the work of others in PKR.
Talk on the ground was that some ambitious leaders in PKR were “uncomfortable” with Zaid’s presence. But this was not a major cause of the defeat, said Mustapha.
“I cannot answer if there were PKR people who had sabotaged him although there were a couple of leaders who defected from the party. However, the defections had no impact on the people’s support for Zaid.
