KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has cautioned today against holding a snap general election now amid a recent spike of Covid-19 cases alongside flood season in a few states.

In a report by Sinar Harian, Hadi added that the few sections in Malaysia calling for election is irrelevant, as the public and the country are still facing the global pandemic.

"Let Covid-19 finish and the flood first, why would you do an election now. We have to discuss with the Ministry of Health Malaysia and the relevant parties.

"We do not want to burden the people,” he was quoted saying.

The Marang MP also said that despite recent strained ties between Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and Umno, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government will not fall and instead persevere.

He added that any decision by its Muafakat Nasional allu Umno to ditch Bersatu and PN would still have to go through the grassroots and divisions level.

"We want to further strengthen PN and Umno have not yet made a final decision. It cannot go through divisions and ordinary members, they have supreme council, there is a political bureau and there is a general assembly.

"We do not want to interfere, it will be well-managed, God willing,” Hadi added.

Earlier today, Umno MP Khairy Jamaluddin again stressed that a general election alongside the Covid-19 pandemic is not a viable choice as evidenced by the Sabah state election last year.

Recently dismissed Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa had also labelled such a move a show of greed for power and insensitivity towards the struggling public, while denying that it is the will of the party’s grassroots.

Malaysia is being engulfed by a third wave of Covid-19 infections that has sent the country’s cumulative cases from 10,000 to over 120,000 in a span of three months and broke another record as new cases breached the 3,000-mark yesterday.

After a lull at the end of last year, Umno has again begun pushing for an early general election in the belief that the party could regain control of the federal government, which it lost in the 2018 general election.