UMNO and PAS have denied their new charter on political cooperation will involve seat sharing in the coming election.

The secretaries-general of the two opposition parties rubbished a news report that speculated Umno was ready to give up some of the seats it traditionally contested to the Islamist party for the 15th general election.

The Malaysiakini report said this would be stipulated in the cooperation charter that both parties are to sign on September 14.

“The Umno-PAS charter that has been approved by the consultative committees of both parties never touches on the issue of seat-sharing for elections.

“Instead, it has been agreed that Umno and PAS will each have their own mechanism to handle the matter,” said Umno’s Annuar Musa and PAS’ Takiyuddin Hassan in a joint statement today.

Umno vice-president Mohamed Khaled Nordin also refuted the news report that was based on unnamed sources.

Khaled, who sits on the technical coordinating committee on the joint charter, said it was premature for Umno and PAS to formalise any arrangement about seat sharing.

“The focus of the charter is on governance matters regarding our cooperation,” he said, calling Malaysiakini’s report an attempt to “sabotage” the cooperation between two of the country’s largest Malay-Muslim parties. – July 30, 2019.