Pakatan Harapan (PH) will discuss Muda joining the opposition coalition as soon as possible, chairman Anwar Ibrahim said.
“We have yet to discuss this matter, but we will work on it very soon,” he told reporters during the Pentas Angkatan Muda event at Taman Medan last night, but he would not be drawn on which parliamentary seats Muda may demand for its allegiance.
“Everything is happening too fast,” he said briefly.
On Tuesday, Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said his party is keen to join PH.
“We have held informal discussions with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke, as well as Amanah president Mohamad Sabu,” he said.
The Muar MP added that the party was targeting no more than 15 seats in the upcoming general election.
However, on Wednesday, PH communications director Fahmi Fadzil said the council was more focused on seats for current coalition members.
“We have yet to talk about any other party joining. I only found out about Muda’s application to join us through the media,” he said.
Even though there’s some resistance from PKR, Muda has submitted a letter to formally join PH.
Syed Saddiq said the letter was submitted to the PH presidential council and the party presidents of PKR, DAP, Amanah and Upko.
“We submitted the letter today,” he said in a brief message yesterday.
While there are PH leaders who are keen on cooperating with Muda in the coming GE15, others are against it.
On Thursday night, PKR deputy information chief Razeef Rakimin urged Pakatan leaders not to allow Muda to join the coalition, saying that the party had “insulted” PKR during the Johor election in March.
“Despite PKR being insulted, the party still gave three seats to Muda to contest. But it was rejected by Muda and they decided to clash with PKR in Larkin,” said Razeef.
The Larkin state seat, which saw a six-cornered fight, was won by Barisan Nasional’s Hairi Md Shah.
Anthony Loke, on the other hand, said his party viewed Muda’s wish to join Pakatan positively.
In an interview with a news portal, he also said that the Pakatan council should quickly discuss the matter.
Muda deputy president Amira Aisya Abd Aziz had said on Sept 2 that the party would ensure that seat clashes with Pakatan would not happen again.