Johari: Too early for Umno-PAS seat talks

It is still too early for Umno and PAS to engage in seat distribution talks, says Federal Territories Umno chief Johari Abdul Ghani.

Johari told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday that the focus for now should be on enhancing working relations between the two parties.

"It is a good proposal. We don't want (a repeat of) what happened during the last general election – where the two parties fought each other and someone else won.

"Umno and PAS have a common agenda. Hence (seat distribution) talks are very important.

"However, it might be too early to discuss it now, because it has only been a year after the general election. Surely such discussions are needed in the future," he said according to Sinar Harian.

Two weeks ago, Umno advisory panel chairperson Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah urged both parties to begin talks.

Razaleigh (photo) pointed out that since Pakatan Harapan is expected to undergo a leadership transition mid-term, both parties cannot rule out snap polls.

During the last general election, the PAS logo was used by 158 parliamentary candidates and 390 state legislative assembly candidates.

In doing so, PAS set a record for the largest number of candidates fielded by a single party in a general election.

However, 54 parliamentary candidates and 97 state candidates lost their deposits after failing to secure one-eighth of the total votes cast.

An analysis by Malaysiakini in February projected that BN and PAS would still be in power if the votes received by both parties were taken as one.