Puad was responding to Salleh Said Keruak, a former Sabah Umno leader and federal minister, who said that the Kemaman by-election was one way to bring Mahathir back into the Dewan Rakyat, which would be in line with PAS’s ambitions to return to federal power.

“Not possible for the Kemaman by-election to be (PAS’s) ticket to Putrajaya. Winning one seat changes nothing. It would be a ‘kamikaze’ (suicidal) move,” Puad said in a Facebook post.

Yesterday, Salleh suggested by winning the seat, Mahathir could also be the prime ministerial candidate for a PAS-led Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.

The former Sabah chief minister added that PAS strongly believed that Mahathir could do for PAS what he did in leading Pakatan Harapan (PH) to attain power in the 2018 general election (GE14), but “provided he is an MP”.

In response, Puad said putting Mahathir forward as PN’s poster boy would offend the coalition’s chairman, Muhyiddin Yassin, as well as his party, Bersatu.

Puad said if PAS believed that carrying Mahathir’s name is more beneficial to their objectives than pushing Muhyiddin’s, then the PN coalition would fall apart.

“It is as if PAS has no one to put forward as a prime ministerial candidate. But is PAS willing to be ‘tainted’ the same way PH was ‘tainted’ for 22 months?” he said, referring to the shortlived tenure the coalition had in Putrajaya after GE14.

Yesterday, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang was reported to have said it would be unreasonable of PAS to field Mahathir in Kemaman.

“No, Tun is not shortlisted,” he told a press conference at PAS’s 69th muktamar, adding that PAS and PN had not decided on a candidate.

The Kemaman by-election was called after an election court nullified the victory by PAS candidate Che Alias Hamid in the last general election (GE15), stating that the distribution of i-Belia and i-Siswa government aid to voters during the campaign period constituted election bribery.