SHAH ALAM: PAS has accepted responsibility for Pakatan Rakyat’s loss in the Kota Damansara seat to Barisan Nasional.
The party had initially fielded Ridzuan Ismail in the six-cornered fight, which also featured PSM president Dr Nasir Hashim, Barisan’s Halimaton Saadiah Bohan, and three independents.
Six days after the nomination, PAS agreed to withdraw from the race but Ridzuan refused to comply with the party’s decision.
Halimaton won with 16,387 votes, while Dr Nasir, who contested under PKR’s ticket, garnered 14,860 votes and Ridzuan got 7,312 votes.
Selangor PAS deputy chief Khalid Samad(pic) said a report would be lodged with the party leadership against Ridzuan.
“Let this be a lesson for us to not be big-headed, thinking that one can win alone. In the end, we betrayed the people’s trust,” he said.
Khalid noted that had Ridzuan threw his full backing behind Dr Nasir, Pakatan would have won the Kota Damansara seat with PKR and PAS votes.
Khalid also dismissed talk that PAS was the stronger party than PKR in the state as the former has 15 seats compared to the latter’s 14 seats.
“If not for the split of votes in Semenyih and Kota Damansara, PKR would have won two more seats. We will stick to the formula where we, PAS-PKR-DAP, help each other,” he said.
In Semenyih, Barisan’s Johan Abd Aziz won with 17,616 votes, with PKR’s Hamidi Hassan and PSM’s S. Arutchelvan getting 13,471 and 5,568 votes respectively.
In response, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali said he appreciated Khalid’s statement, saying that it reflected the spirit of openness in Pakatan Rakyat.
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