Most of them will probably vote for PAS, according to the imam of a local mosque, Maskor Mohd Idris, who is an activist for the Islamist party.

The handful who will remain are people who think of Bukit Niaga as their original home. Except for one or two, they would most likely vote for Umno, Maskor told FMT over coffee at a restaurant in Shah Alam.

The racial composition of the Kota Raja constituency is mixed, but Bukit Naga is 90% Malay.

“Our town is a PAS town, except on long weekends, during festive seasons and at election time,” he said.

“The people whose roots are in Bukit Naga are for Umno. There are one or two who have joined PKR, but most of them have stayed with Umno.”

Addressing allegations that PAS was working with Umno, he said: “That’s just rhetoric that Pakatan Harapan uses to win votes.”

He paused, sipped his coffee and then added: “But then, when you think about it, Umno’s supposed mission is to fight for the Malays, and Malays are Muslims. It’s not true that we’re working with Umno, but still, better Umno than DAP.”

He said PAS loyalists like him would like most of all to see Islam empowered in Malaysia and that’s why they supported the party’s break from the opposition coalition when it became clear that DAP was against such an aspiration.

As evidence of this, he alleged that the speaker of the Selangor state assembly, Hannah Yeoh of DAP, would habitually shoot down motions PAS would propose in its effort to raise the importance of Islam in the state’s administration.

“We had not even won Putrajaya yet and this was already happening,” he said. “We decided it was time to split.

“Of course we’d like to be in Pakatan, but for us, it’s Allah before politics.

“Many of our friends who have joined Amanah tell me, ‘We cannot win without DAP,’ but I tell them it’s God who decides who wins and who loses. If Allah wants PAS to lose, it will lose.”