The chairman of Pakatan Harapan (PH) and PPBM said when PAS was invited to collaborate with the opposition pact, it had laid down conditions that would certainly split and reduce the votes for PH.
Without specifying what these conditions were, Mahathir said PAS was more concerned about its enmity with Amanah and DAP than in bringing down the BN government, even though the Islamist party was bound to incur losses in the contests between the two coalitions and itself.
“For PAS, race, religion and nation are not important, and neither is toppling Najib’s kleptocratic government,” Mahathir, 92, said in his blog today.
“What is clear is that if PAS runs in GE14 against BN and PH, the Malay votes will be split three ways.
“In this situation, votes for PAS, though they may be small, would be effective in reducing the votes for PH such that Datuk Seri Najib and BN would be assured of victory,” he said.
The former prime minister added that PAS would only serve as a disruptor for the opposition in most of the constituencies where it will contest.
He said the party’s intention to run in all the parliamentary seats it had contested in the last general election in May 2013 would lead to it losing more seats in GE14 than it did previously.
He said the Islamist party would not be able to enjoy the support of Chinese, Indian and pro-DAP voters as it did in the last two general elections.
“PAS knows that its victories along the western coast (of Peninsular Malaysia) in GE12 and GE13 were due to the support of DAP and the Chinese,” he said.
He said PAS must also be aware that without such support, it could even lose in straight fights with BN in the west coast states.
PAS won 23 parliamentary seats in the 2008 election and 21 in 2013.