The wing’s chief, N Balasubramaniam, said this year’s request was made in line with the spirit of camaraderie within PAS, adding that the wing had been giving the party its unwavering support since GE14.

“Our request is reasonable, given that Johor and Melaka have already held their state elections,” he was quoted as saying by Berita Harian.

“It’s up to PAS’ central committee to decide which seats our candidates can be fielded in. We remain confident and believe in the sincerity of PAS leaders, who have been close friends of various races.

“If we are given the opportunity to contest on a PAS ticket, we will also try to win at least one parliamentary constituency and several state seats, based on the support from members and help from PAS itself.”

In GE14, Balasubramaniam contested the Bentong seat on a PAS ticket in a three-way clash with DAP’s Wong Tack and Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Liow Tiong Lai, but obtained the lowest number of votes (5,706) and lost his deposit.

Wong won the seat with 25,716 votes after securing a 2,032-vote majority over Liow.

Another member of the wing, Kumar Silambaram, contested the Tanah Rata state seat but only managed to obtain 600 votes, losing his deposit. DAP’s Chiong Yoke Kong won the seat with 8,821 votes while BN’s Leong Tak Man secured 5,232 votes.