PAS will set up its own election machinery to assist MIC in the Cameron Highlands by-election, said Takiyuddin Hassan.

“We will run our own activities and coordinate with the MIC team to help them retain this seat,” the PAS secretary-general told The Malaysian Insight today.

Takiyuddin, who is the Kota Baru MP, said the party is confident Barisan Nasional can retain the seat as the GE14 winning margin was slim.

“Our candidate (Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud) received 3,587 votes last year. Added to the BN votes, the seat is within reach,” he said.

The Islamist party is sitting out the by-election and building on its ties with the ethnic Indian party.

Last year, the MIC’s top leaders met with the PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and its senior leaders on improving ties and finding common ground against Pakatan Harapan.

In the last elections, MIC’s Sivarraajh Chandran won by 597 votes after picking up 10,307 votes compared with DAP’s M. Manogaran (9,710), PAS’ Wan Mahadir (3,587), PSM’s Suresh Kumar Balasubramaniam (680) and Berjasa’s Mohd Tahir Kassim (81).

Turnout was 76% or 24,365 out of 32,048 voters in the last elections.

The by-election, which begins with nominations on January 12, was triggered after the election court overturned the results on November 30 after ruling that Sivarraajh had bought votes.  

Sivarraajh, however, will not be re-contesting the seat after the Election Commission decided last week that the MIC vice-president was ineligible as he was implicated in corrupt practices to win the parliamentary seat last May.

Takiyuddin said the party will be meeting in the “next few days” to decide who will lead the PAS machinery in Cameron Highlands.

While it was too early to confirm whether PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang will take part in the campaign, Takiyuddin said deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man is likely to take part. – January 2, 2019.