KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari today poured cold water on the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition’s ability to wrest Selangor from the Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) alliance in the August 12 state election.

The Selangor PH chief claimed the Opposition PN appeared to be focusing only on winning the state’s northern seats, which showed it lacked confidence to take over as the new government.

"We are confident that the information and programmes provided to our new BN partner will lead to success in regaining the seats there in the name of the unity government.

"But at the same time, this also shows how PN is lacking in confidence to retake the state as a whole if they are just focusing on northern Selangor it seems.

"If that’s the case, it seems they are just focusing there to become a strong Opposition,” he told reporters after an event in Gombak.

A video clip of the impromptu press conference was posted on the Facebook page of Suara Keadilan, the PKR-owned news platform this morning.

Amirudin believes PH will be able to work with its new BN partners to fend off any PN assault in Selangor.

Selangor was first won by the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition, which comprised PKR, DAP and PAS, in Election 2008.

PAS later exited PR and was replaced by splinter party Parti Amanah Negara, and PH was subsequently born.

Following the 2018 Selangor election, PH controlled 40 out of the 56 state seats with PKR taking 19 followed by DAP at 15 and Amanah with six.

Umno won five for BN with the remainder comprising various parties.

Bersatu and PAS — which make up the bulk of PN — has four and one each.

Selangor is one of the six states to hold its state elections this year. The other states are Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan and Penang.