PETALING JAYA: PKR will comply with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council’s decision not to cooperate with PAS in the 14th general election (GE14).
PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali said the party respected the council’s decision and would take the necessary steps for implementation.
“Our focus now is on the election machinery for GE14,” he was quoted as saying by The Star today.
“We will not cooperate with PAS in GE14 and we will strategise for the possibility of three-cornered fights in the next general election.”
Following a three-hour meeting on Monday, the PH presidential council said the coalition would not cooperate with the Islamist party but would concentrate on preparing a strategy to manage the expected three-cornered contests.
Azmin, who is a PH vice-president, was notably absent from the meeting. He was also a no-show at a meeting of PKR’s political bureau the following night.
According to The Star, Azmin said he had been attending to other matters at the time.
The PH meeting followed reports that some PKR leaders were involved in negotiations with PAS on the allocation of seats in Selangor in GE14.
On Saturday, Azmin said his talks with PAS leaders were not done in his personal capacity but based on a party decision. However, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution later denied there was such a decision made at the party level.
The move did not sit well with some party leaders, including Selayang MP William Leong who recently announced his resignation from the political bureau, the highest decision-making body in PKR.