KOTA BARU: Pas has shortlisted three to five potential candidates for each of the parliamentary and state seats in Kelantan for the coming general election.
Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said the Islamic party was currently monitoring them.
"We will finalise the list once the Parliament has been dissolved and will announce their names after looking at several factors. The keyword here is winnable and the candidates need not necessarily be professionals.
"From our experience, in certain areas, people don't care whether the candidates are professionals or not. The important thing to them is that they are approachable," he told reporters after the state executive council meeting today.
Amar said in Kelantan, the practice has always been that the names will be nominated by Pas branches - between three to five people, for each of the parliamentary and state seat.
After that, he said the party would analyse the names and arrange them accordingly.
"These names can change due to time and other factors. Sometimes, the people who are nominated are no longer interested to contest or died. So, we have to make changes," said Amar.
On another development, Amar, who is also Pas vice-president said the party would not stop its Members of Parliament (MP) and state assemblymen from leaving the party and chose to stand on the tickets of other parties in the coming general election.
He said if the members wanted to jump to other party, then it was up to them and the party would not interfere in their decision.
"Personally, I feel it is better for them to leave rather than remain in the the party and ruin it from the inside. It is good for them to leave...
"As a matter of fact, the party will be more stable and it will be easier for us to make decisions." said Amar.
He was commenting on speculations that two Kedah state assemblymen will be joining former vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar to leave the party and contest on another party's ticket in the next general election.
It was reported that the assemblymen, Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah (Anak Bukit) and Mohd Nasir Mustafa (Kubang Rotan) have been actively speaking in Pakatan Harapan's 'ceramah' besides being absent at Pas activities.
Asked if his advice was also aimed at Mahfuz, Amar said he had asked the Pokok Sena MP to leave the party a long time ago.
