KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 ― PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang does not see a need to come up with a prime minister candidate so soon, saying it is up to Malaysian voters to decide the party they want to govern the country in the next general election.

Hadi said who the next prime minister will be and from which party, will be determined based on the results of GE15.

"We leave it to the public, the election is not yet held, [so let] the public decide the election results, who, which party.

"No need to be hasty [later] become like Johor, the candidate is someone else, the one who rose up is someone else, ‘order’ another thing, what arrives is another thing,” he was quoted saying by local daily Berita Harian.

Hadi was alluding to how Umno had named Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad who was the immediate past Johor mentri besar for continuity if the party and the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition it anchors won the state election on March 12.

However, Hasni was replaced with Machap assemblyman Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi after the Johor election which saw BN sweep 40 out of the 56 state seats.

Hadi said PAS has no candidate to be the next prime minister when asked.

Two days ago, the Umno supreme council unanimously nominated its vice-president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to continue as prime minister if BN won GE15.

But that same day, Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman who sits on the Umno supreme council also said that being the poster boy does not guarantee the nominee will become PM after the election. Like Hadi, Tajuddin also cited Johor as an example.

Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had previously demurred on naming the party’s prime ministerial candidate, saying on March 19 that the "poster boy” strategy would no longer be used for the GE as up to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to decide who will be head of the federal government.

At that time, Zahid said any of the top five leaders in Umno could be a prime ministerial candidate.

The five are Zahid himself, Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and the three vice-presidents Ismail Sabri, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, and Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.