Don’t underestimate PAS, Pakatan warned

An analyst says the strength of the Islamist party's election machinery should not be ignored.

PETALING JAYA: A political analyst has warned Pakatan Harapan against underestimating PAS and taking for granted the findings of a two-month telephone survey by Invoke involving 10,000 voters.

Invoke, a Pakatan Harapan policy research initiative, said on Tuesday that BN would have the advantage in three-cornered contests in Malay-majority areas in the coming general election and that PAS would get fewer votes than Amanah.

However, Awang Azman Pawi, an associate professor at Universiti Malaya, told FMT that PAS had strengths that could not be ignored.

One of these strengths, he said, lay in its election machinery.

He said the Pakatan parties could not have got the number of votes they did in 2013 without help from PAS’ machinery.

“PAS’ machinery is huge and very productive compared with that of DAP or PKR. They can’t take that lightly.”

Awang Azman also said PAS was still strong in rural areas and the party still had many loyalists.

“The PAS grassroots still think of their president, Abdul Hadi Awang, as their general and headmaster. They’re willing to fight for PAS’ political ideology and the party still has many active divisions outside of the urban areas.”

According to Invoke’s findings, non-Malays who voted for PAS in the last two general elections would shun it in GE14 because the party had opted out of the opposition coalition.

The findings were disclosed on the heels of a warning by PAS that it would field candidates for seats that Pakatan Harapan planned to contest. -FMT