KUALA TERENGGANU: PAS has made a clean sweep in Kelantan and Terengganu.

Going by unofficial results as of 10.30pm on Saturday (Nov 19), the Islamist party is ahead in almost every parliamentary seat.

It showed that Barisan Nasional’s strategy of fielding former PAS members as their candidates and dropping their incumbent Barisan leaders had backfired.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the Barisan veteran who contested in Gua Musang, Kelantan, for the 13th time, suffered a defeat, losing narrowly by 163 votes.

The man known as Ku Li received 21,663 votes while his PAS contender Mohd Azizi Abu Naim obtained 21,826 votes.In Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, PAS candidate Datuk Dr Alias Razak was ahead of four other candidates, including the incumbent Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali who contested under Barisan’s ticket.

Alias was far ahead with 47,455 votes to 23,091 for Khairuddin.

Khairuddin, a former plantation, industries and commodities minister, left PAS in March after a fallout with the Islamist party for dropping him from its central committee in January.

For GE15, he contested under Barisan as a “direct candidate”.

In Tumpat, Kelantan, another former PAS member who contested under Barisan’s banner, Datuk Che Abdullah Mat Nawi, was also falling behind his PAS rival Datuk Mumtaz Md Nawi, who obtained 30,365 votes so far.

Che Abdullah, better known as Che Lah, received 10,089 votes.

Che Abdullah, who won the seat with a majority of 17,500 votes in the previous general election, contested in Tumpat under Barisan as a direct candidate after he was dropped from PAS.

This led to his dismissal from PAS.

As for Marzuani Ardila Ariffin, the Barisan candidate who contested the Kelantan seat of Ketereh, previously held by her boss Tan Sri Annuar Musa, was also trailing.

PAS’ Mejar-Jen (Rtd) Datuk Khlir Mohd Nor was leading with 38,303 votes to Marzuani’s 16,514 as at press time.

In Machang, Kelantan Bersatu Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal was also ahead of incumbent MP Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub of Umno.

Wan Ahmad Fayhsal got 16,350 votes while Ahmad Jazlan notched 12,166 votes.