KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — PAS only recorded much higher votes for its president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang and the party after the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition was established in 2020, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin reportedly said.

The PN chairman and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president said before the coalition was formed, Hadi won general elections with a majority of 10,000 to 15,000 votes — but this jumped to a 40,000-vote majority in the 15th general election.

"Previously the number of votes Hadi and PAS won was stagnant, but with PN, they recorded phenomenal majorities,” Muhyiddin said in Free Malaysia Today.

This meant that the support for PAS had been stagnant before it teamed up with Bersatu, Muhyiddin added.

Drawing a comparison to the state elections held in August, he said PAS almost wrested Selangor from Pakatan Harapan, on top of the four states it currently controlled — Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis.

In the state elections, PAS won with a clean sweep in Kelantan bagging all 32 state seats, and almost clean sweep in Terengganu, while making inroads into Selangor by securing 22 seats out of 56 seats.

In the six-state election, PAS managed to make a 43-seat clean sweep in Kelantan and 32-seat clean sweep in Terengganu, and an almost-clean sweep in Kedah — 21 seats out of 36, Bersatu won 11 seats, while PH won four seats — and it made inroads into Selangor by securing 10 out of 22 seats PN won from the 56 state seats.

Prior to the six-state election, PAS won two out of three state seats in Perlis, with one seat won by Bersatu.

"Voters were not backing PAS or Bersatu, but were supporting PN as a coalition. PAS, Bersatu and Gerakan see this [alliance] as an advantage.

"We cannot go on our own. We could, but the outcome won’t be like this,” Muhyiddin reportedly said.

Following the four Bersatu men who recently shifted their support for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, he said PAS would remain part of the coalition and that it will not leave.

"As far as I am concerned, PAS will not leave[(PN] as they are wise enough to know that no political party can go solo and form the government,” he said.

Muhyiddin noted that both PAS and Bersatu did not have sufficient numbers on their own to form the government.

The four Bersatu MPs who voice their support of the unity government leadership are Datuk Suhaili Abdul Rahman (Labuan), Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid (Kuala Kangsar), Mohd Azizi Abu Naim (Gua Musang) and Zahari Kechik (Jeli).

All the four MPs said they did so to ensure that federal funds would continue to flow for the welfare of their constituents.