KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 — The budding liaison between Umno and PAS grew today when the Malay nationalist party’s deputy president, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, announced that Barisan Nasional will yield to the Islamists in the still unannounced Seri Setia race.

The Seri Setia state seat in Selangor is vacant following the death of the incumbent assemblyman, Shaharuddin Badaruddin, yesterday.

The gesture appears to be reciprocation for PAS’s decision to yield the Sungai Kandis spot to Barisan Nasional, whose candidate it has also endorsed.

"This is also the starting point and understanding between both parties for a new political movement in this ‘New Malaysia’,” he was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama at the Padang Raja Umno office.

Unlike PAS, he said Umno will also openly campaign for the Islamist party’s eventual candidate in Seri Setia.

PAS endorsed Umno’s Datuk Lokman Noor Adam in Sungai Kandis, but stopped short of stumping for him.

The closest it came to doing so was when PAS information chief Nasrudin Hassan said he intended to campaign against PKR.

"We will go all out and work hard even though the candidate placed in the Seri Setia state seat is not from BN or Umno… I will personally go down to ground to help the PAS candidate,” the former Negri Sembilan mentri besar said.

He expressed hope that the cooperation between Umno and PAS will grow, urging both parties to find common ground for further collaboration.

Mohamad also appealed to the 7,000 or so voters who backed PAS in Sungai Kandis during the general election to switch allegiances to BN for tomorrow’s by-election, pledging that Umno would repay the votes in Seri Setia.

The Election Commission received official notice of the vacancy in Seri Setia today and will meet soon to discuss the by-election that must be held there.