PAS said today it has yet to propose any leader as Perikatan Nasional’s prime ministerial candidate for the next general election, not even opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin.
PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said the matter of naming a prime ministerial candidate to represent the opposition was never discussed at the PAS or PN level.
He was commenting on a video featuring the voice of a Bersatu leader claiming that PAS leaders, including party president Abdul Hadi Awang, had agreed to name Hamzah as PN’s prime ministerial candidate.
“The PAS president recently made it clear that we do not want to name anyone as the candidate yet. We are focusing on winning GE16 first. The candidate will be decided later.
“In PN, there are many capable leaders, not just one. So the issue does not arise,” Takiyuddin told a press conference at the PAS headquarters today.
On the audio that went viral earlier today, Takiyuddin said the claims must be substantiated.
The video comes amid heightened speculation over PN’s choice for prime minister, a debate that has also been linked to statutory declarations concerning Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin.
The turmoil follows Bersatu’s annual general assembly last month, where Muhyiddin was announced as the coalition’s candidate for the 11th prime minister.
The audio also emerged as internal divisions within Bersatu have intensified, with Supreme Council member Wan Saiful Wan Jan saying that secretary-general Azmin Ali was unfit to lead the party until the controversy over a 2019 video, allegedly of the former minister engaged in homosexual acts, is resolved.
The clip allegedly showed Azmin with another man at a hotel in Sandakan. Haziq Aziz, the Santubong PKR Youth chief at the time, subsequently released a video confession naming himself and Azmin as the two men in the clip.
Azmin, who was then the economic affairs minister and PKR deputy president, denied the allegation, calling it a plot to end his political career.
