PAS said it is ready to cooperate with anyone, including Umno, to ensure PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim will not get an easy win in the Port Dickson by-election.

PAS central general election director Ahmad Shamsuri Mokhtar, who is also Terengganu menteri besar, said PAS was ready to field its own candidate to prevent a walkover for Anwar, but this depended on Umno’s decision.

“I believe there will be efforts to avoid a multi-cornered contest in the Port Dickson by-election. Regardless, before the nomination date, we can still discuss it. I believe we can settle it in a good way.

“PAS is willing to cooperate (with anyone), regardless of who the candidate will be, (whether it is an) Umno, PAS or a third party. The opposition should be given space to work together for this by-election,” he said after attending the flagging-off ceremony for the Lombok Humanitarian Mission 2.0 at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang today.

The Port Dickson parliamentary seat was vacated by incumbent Danyal Balagopal Abdullah, 68, to allow Anwar to contest and return to the Dewan Rakyat.

The Election Commission has fixed October 13 as polling day and September 29 as nomination day.

The Malaysian People’s Party and independent candidates had previously announced they would be contesting in Port Dickson against Anwar.

Shamsuri, meanwhile, described the Port Dickson polls as wasteful and only served to toy with the people’s feelings, as it was being deliberately held to fulfil the aspirations of one person to become prime minister.

“It is a forced election… I see what happened in Kajang, which was purportedly to place the candidate for the post of menteri besar (of Selangor) in the early stages. In the end, who became menteri besar? Someone else became menteri besar. This is a waste that will not achieve its objective.

On the Lombok Humanitarian 2.0 mission, PAS relief director Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said 31 participants will bring about 20 tonnes of food and 50 water tanks to locals, as well as help build 17 temporary houses.

He said the mission would also help residents, especially in North Lombok, build five schools and seven surau.

“We are raising funds to build a mosque in Lombok as more than 1,000 mosques were destroyed in the earthquake in July and August. We hope that government-linked companies in Terengganu will provide donations and assistance to build 10 earthquake-resistant mosques.” – Bernama, September 23, 2018.