Bagan Serai Bersatu division chief Ismail Ali said that as a grassroots member, he was open to accepting the incumbent, Noor Azmi Ghazali, or party Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal, if either of them were nominated by the party.

He, however, conceded that PAS’ claim to the seat was to be “expected”.

“At this stage, we know PAS will claim that the seat belongs to them. In the previous general election (GE14), we admit we didn’t have the proper machinery to campaign,” he said.

“But now we’re in a much better position as we have many divisions and a well-trained machinery to face the coming general election,” he told FMT.

On May 17, Bagan Serai PAS chief Abdul Aziz Abdul Majid had said they would not give way to Wan Fayhsal to contest the seat, saying the announcement by Bersatu was “inappropriate”.

Aziz said Wan Fayhsal had not received the mandate from the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition at the state or federal level to contest the seat.

However, Ismail said Wan Fayhsal, who is also deputy national unity minister, had been going down to the ground in Bagan Serai for the past two years, adding that the area was also his hometown.

“We cannot comment on whether or not PAS agrees (with Wan Fayhsal). We will abide by whatever decision PN makes and, surely, PAS will do the same,” he said.

FMT has contacted Noor Azmi for further comment on the issue and is awaiting a response.

In GE14, Noor Azmi, who at the time was still with Umno, won the Bagan Serai seat with a majority of 172 votes, beating contenders from both PAS and Bersatu.

However, on June 24, 2018, Noor Azmi left Umno and became an independent MP before eventually joining Bersatu.