KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — A Kedah PAS politician is challenging Datuk Mahfuz Omar to prove his assertion that Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) will secure 16 out of 36 seats in the August 12 state election.

Instead, Kedah PAS political committee member Datuk Wan Romani Wan Salim claimed that a recent census showed the majority of seats would fall to Perikatan Nasional (PN), enabling it to keep the state for another five-year term, Utusan Malaysia reported today.

"The census shows that PN is able to win the target of 33 out of 36 seats as stated by caretaker menteri besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor.

"Insya-Allah, our machinery is also prepared for the state polls.

"If PH leaders claim that they are able to take over the leadership of the state due to their cooperation with BN, I think that claim is baseless,” Wan Romani, who is also the incumbent Bukit Pinang assemblyman, was quoted as saying.

He dismissed Kedah PH chairman Mahfuz’s 16-seat claim and challenged the latter to name the constituencies.

"If PH says they already ‘hold’ 16 seats, try to show where,” he was quoted as saying in response to the former Pokok Sena MP’s reported claim yesterday.

Mahfuz was also reported as saying that the 16-seat win was based on statistical information.

Wan Romani said Mahfuz’s assessment, if based on data gathered from last November’s general election, was dubious.

He added that GE15 data showed PN’s margin of votes to be in the tens of thousands for Kedah.

"Therefore, PAS is confident that PN will dominate the Kedah state seats in the upcoming election soon,” he was quoted as saying.

In GE15, PAS under PN succeeded in securing a super-majority of 14 parliamentary seats out of 15, with PH winning one and BN eliminated from the results.

For the previous GE14 in 2018, PH secured 10 parliamentary seats while PAS won three and BN two.

Combining PH and BN, the two lost 11 seats in last year’s general election.