This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 17, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: PAS will contest over 150 parliamentary seats in the 14th general election (GE14), the Islamist party has announced.

This excludes seats to be contested by other members of its loose coalition Gagasan Sejahtera, a party official confirmed with The Edge Financial Daily.

This is the highest number of seats to be contested by a single party in the recent history of Malaysia’s general elections — beating the 121 seats contested by Umno in GE13.

“PAS has conducted a daily executive committee meeting today (Sunday) in Penang, chaired by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and attended by all 12 of the committee members,” it said in a statement on Sunday.

“During the meeting, PAS finalised 95% of its candidates for both parliamentary and state assembly levels for all states including Sabah and Sarawak,” it said.

Additionally, the party reiterated that it will announce its candidate list on Thursday for all states except for Sabah, Sarawak and its stronghold Kelantan.

PAS also welcomed in the statement former Umno Women wing deputy chief Datuk Kamilia Ibrahim as a lifetime party member.

Kamilia held the position in Umno until 2013, before she was automatically removed after deciding to contest as an independent for the Kuala Kangsar parliamentary seat in GE13.