PAS eyes seats held by Nurul Izzah, Tian Chua

(FMT) – Federal Territory (FT) PAS has pledged to run in nine parliamentary seats here, including Lembah Pantai and Batu, which are held by PKR vice-presidents Nurul Izzah Anwar and Tian Chua.

Its commissioner, Mohamad Noor Mohamad, said the party also wants to attract Muslim votes in constituencies where DAP enjoys majority support, such as Segambut (held by Lim Lip Eng) in the upcoming 14th general election (GE14).

“The decision is in line with that made by our Syura Council for the ‘tahaluf siyasi’ (political cooperation) with PKR to be terminated,” he told reporters during FT PAS’ election convention held here today.

There are 11 parliamentary constituencies in the FT area, in addition to one each in Putrajaya and Labuan, which are also federal territories.

PAS failed to win any of them in the last general election in May 2013.

The late Dr Lo’ Lo’ Mohamad Ghazali was the party’s last MP in FT, after winning the Titiwangsa seat in the general election of March 2008. She succumbed to cancer in July 2011.

“We see that support for PAS is getting stronger, especially among Malay-Muslims, even as we still get support from non-Muslim voters.”

Asked about the party’s chances in Segambut, Noor said a study had shown that not all the voters there back DAP.

“Our first target is, of course, to get the Muslims to vote for PAS in Segambut, in addition to Chinese and Indians as not all of them vote for DAP.”

In the 2013 election, Lim won the constituency by a majority of 19,199 votes against the Barisan Nasional (BN). Of the 75,631 registered voters, Lim garnered 41,383 while BN’s Jayanthi Devi Balaguru got 22,184.

In Lembah Pantai, Nurul Izzah defeated two other contenders with a majority of 1,847 votes. Of the 72,396 registered voters there, she obtained 31,008 votes, compared with BN candidate Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin’s 29,161 and independent Rusli Baba’s 167.

In Batu, Tian Chua swept aside four others with a majority of 13,284 votes. Of the 85,402 registered voters, he amassed 41,672 votes, while BN’s Dominic Lau Hoe Chai got 28,388, Berjasa’s Hashim Karim got 949, and independents Nazariah Abbas and Atan Jasin managed 209 and 164 votes respectively.

Meanwhile, PAS information chief Nasrudin Hasan rejected the opinions of analysts who had predicted that PAS’ move to end its cooperation with PKR will benefit BN more.

He said PAS had the chance to win in GE14 due to the “latest political developments” and added that the party would probably field candidates in 100 parliamentary seats, of which 40 are expected to be won easily.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has been reported to have said that the party will contest 80 seats.