Young progressive PAS leaders have fended a strong bid by party conservatives to make a comeback in the party leadership.
Nasharuddin Mat Isa was reelected as PAS deputy president after a keen contest mounted by the party' second most senior religious scholar and conservative, Harun Taib.
The incumbent scored convincing 574 to 367 votes to win against the first-time candidate for the post.
Harun was widely believed to be capable of toppling Nasharuddin, after a good run by candidates with religious scholar backgrounds in the Youth, Women's and divisional elections.
Additionally, there were also rumblings among party faithfuls that Nasharuddin tried to make changes within the party too fast, causing discomfort among party conservatives.
Along with Nasharuddin, Husam Musa and Mohamad Sabu were among the 'young turks' who had swept into power during the last party polls.
The new veep
It was announced today that Husam and Mohamad were returned to their vice- president posts. Husam topped the number of votes with 831 followed by Mohamad who garnered 666 votes.
PAS information chief Ahmad Awang came in third as one of the three party vice-presidents with 427 votes.
Ahmad, a senior ulama, is also said to be a close ally of former deputy premier and de facto Parti Keadilan Rakyat leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Their roots are traced back to the Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement (Abim) once headed by Anwar.
Observers were quick to point out that the new party leadership bodes well for cooperation with opposition ally PKR.
Along with Ahmad, party secretary-general Kamaruddin Jaafar also enjoyed close ties with Anwar.
The latter has also appointed PAS party worker Saifuddin Nasuntion as a member of PKR's election strategy committee.
No comments:
Post a Comment