KUALA LUMPUR: Pas will not field a candidate in the Cameron Highlands by-election set for Jan 26 next year.
Instead, the Islamist party will throw its backing behind any opposition candidate who would be fielded on the Pahang parliamentary constituency.
This decision on the matter by the Pas central committee was relayed by the party's secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan.
"The Pas central committee meeting made the decision, not to nominate a candidate for the the Cameron Highlands by-election that would be held on Jan 26, 2019, as announced by the Election Commission (EC).
"Even so, as an opposition party, Pas hopes that the by-election would produce an outcome which would strengthen the opposition, especially in the Malaysian Parliament.
"This matter is important because good democratic practice requires check and balance in the administration of a government. In other words, the opposition's role is very important.
"In line with that, Pas has decided to give support to the candidate who would represent the opposition in the by-election," he said in a statement today.
Takiyuddin also relayed Pas' directive for its members in the Parliamentary constituency to come out and vote during the by-election in line with the party's stance.
The EC today fixed the Cameron Highlands by-election on Jan 26, with nomination date being set on Jan 12.
On Nov 30, the Election Court declared Barisan Nasional’s victory in Cameron Highlands as null and void due to existence of corrupt practices during the 14th General Election.
In the historic May 9 polls, Datuk C. Sivarraajh garnered 10,307 votes, beating Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate M. Manogaran who received 9,710 votes, and three others.
The three other were Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud (Pas) who secured 3,587 votes; Mohd Tahir Kassim (Berjasa) with 81 votes and B. Suresh Kumar (Parti Sosialis Malaysia) who received 680 votes.
On June 4, DAP candidate Manogaran filed a petition to invalidate the electoral result due to violation of the Offences Act 1954.
Manogaran claimed that incumbent Sivarraajh had allegedly given bribes of between RM30 and RM1,000 to Orang Asli voters through several Tok Batin (community heads) to ensure they voted for BN.