PERIKATAN Nasional (PN) chairman Muhyiddin Yassin has urged voters in Pulai not to vote for Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Suhaizan Kayat in the parliamentary by-election next weekend.

He said it would be “haram” (sinful in Islamic context) to vote for Suhaizan.

“Do not give even one vote to Suhaizan, the former (Johor) speaker. I deem it as ‘haram’.

“Tomorrow someone will challenge me which fatwa this was based on,” the former prime minister was quoted as saying in The Star Online.

He was speaking at a PN ceramah in Taman Kempas in Johor Baru last night.

Two by-elections are due to be held on September 9, for the Pulai federal seat as well as for the Simpang Jeram state seat, following the death of incumbent Salahuddin Ayub from PH.

Muhyiddin also said that if PH retains the Pulai federal seat it would then retain the two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat, and this would result in an increase in the number of parliament seats for the ruling coalition, to its advantage.

“Having a two-thirds majority will make it easy for them to make constitutional amendments, including the re-delineation of electoral boundaries, which is done every eight years.

“How do you think they will do this? They are sure to increase the current 222-seat parliament by another 78 seats to 300.

“Where would they want these increases? Maybe in urban and densely populated areas.

“This is not a racial issue but the reality of the geo-politics here and in other areas.

“Gerrymandering will happen where they break up the constituency that does not support them and add seats in areas that support them.

“The urban areas are populated by the Chinese. A large chunk of those areas don’t support us but I don’t want to blame them,” he said.

If this happens, Muhyiddin warned, it would give more power to other parties, including DAP, in the next general election.

In Pulai, PH’s Suhaizan is in a three-cornered fight against PN’s Zulkifli Jaafar and Independent candidate Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi.

Pulai is a mixed seat with Malays making up 44.18% of the total 166,653 registered voters, followed by the Chinese (40.46%), Indians (12.31%) and other ethnicities (3.06%).

In the 2022 general election, Salahuddin defended the seat and won with 64,900 votes, which gave him a 33,174-vote majority against Barisan Nasional’s Nur Jazlan Mohamed (31,726) and Loh Kah Yong from Perikatan (20,677).