PAS mulls giving BN walkover in Merlimau

Malaysia PAS mulls giving BN walkover in Merlimau By Adib Zalkapli February 07, 2011 KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — The Merlimau by-election may see the incumbent Barisan Nasional (BN) winning the seat unchallenged if PAS decides to stay away from the poll. The Malaysian Insider understands that a significant number of senior leaders in the Islamist party have been lobbying the top leadership not to field a candidate in the BN stronghold. “We have to choose our battles. We can’t just contest when a vacancy arises. It is very costly and this is the time for us to focus on the general election,” said a member of the PAS political bureau who spoke on condition of anonymity. Out of the 14 by-elections held since 2008, PAS has contested in seven of them and won four. The last time PAS refused to contest in a by-election was in January 2007 when Pahang’s Batu Talam seat fell vacant. The party then cited electoral irregularities for boycotting the by-election. “Except for some who have been eager to set up an operations centre in Merlimau, many of us in the national leadership are not in favour of contesting,” said the source. The PAS central committee member said the only obstacle to the plan is the Malacca state leadership as well as leaders of the party’s Jasin division. The issue is expected to be debated at tonight’s meeting of the political bureau. It is understood that PAS vice-president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, who has been appointed the Merlimau by-election director, is likely to back the proposal to stand down as he has previously spoken out against by-elections. The influential ulama had said during the Hulu Selangor campaign last year that by-elections cause government resources to be redistributed, affecting development plans. Tuan Ibrahim had also accused all political parties of violating election laws by over-spending during the campaigning period. Meanwhile, another PAS insider said the party would first have to decide not to contest before convincing its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) partners to do the same. “The problem is PKR and the Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Akin are interested. There will be more damage internally if we let PKR contest,” he said, citing the Election 2008 seat negotiation agreement when Shamsul abandoned the Jasin parliamentary seat after he was given clearance by the Terengganu PAS leadership to contest in Dungun. The Jasin parliamentary constituency is a stronghold of BN, where it won all the five state seats including Merlimau in Election 2008. PKR through Shamsul had demanded for the Jasin seat, which had been traditionally contested by PAS prior to Election 2008. The Merlimau state seat fell vacant after BN’s Datuk Mohamad Hidhir Abu Hasan, 54, died on January 20. In the 1999 general election, BN won with a majority of 2,252 votes, in 2004 it was 5,087 votes and 2008 with 2,154 votes. Mohamad Hidhir, who was also a state executive councillor, defeated PAS’s Jasme Tompang in the March 2008 general election.