ALOR SETAR, Sept 4 — PAS should overcome racial barriers in elections by fielding candidates of different races and appeal to non-Muslim voters, said Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang.

The PAS president said the Islamist party intended to emulate fierce rivals DAP in the latter’s ability to put up candidates not of a constituency’s main ethnic community.

He said his party has already started to enter into non-Muslim area with the help of the PAS Supporters’ Congress (DHPP).

"If DAP can appoint Indian representatives in Chinese areas, why not us?

"May we be able to break through the fortress to bring us closer to non-Muslims,” he said in his closing speech for the party’s 68th Muktamar (annual congress) at Kedah PAS Complex here today.

In his speech, he also recounted the party’s progress after breaking off from Pakatan Rakyat in 2015, by taking the peaceful and friendly approach towards other Muslims parties and groups in order to cater to Malaysians.

However, he said the objective now was to champion the Malay-Muslim unity in order to ensure peace and stability of the country.

"We should not add more enemies, that is why we befriended and find NGOs and political parties who share the same ideology and not extreme,” he said.

In 2018 general election, PAS formed the Gagasan Sejahtera coalition with Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan), Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Malaysia (Berjasa) and other Malay NGOs.

The coalition contested at 160 seats using the PAS logo and only won in 18 seats, including nine in the party’s traditional stronghold Kelantan. However, PAS also won enough seats to take over the state of Terengganu.

It later formed the informal Muafakat Nasional charter with former rivals Umno.

After the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government in 2020, PAS joined the Perikatan Nasional coalition with Bersatu, Gerakan and PBRS while insisting that it would maintain the MN cooperation with Umno.