Selangor PAS commissioner Ab Halim Tamuri said the party’s machinery had begun operating a week before nominations on April 27.

He said Hulu Selangor MP Hasnizan Harun was appointed the opposition’s deputy election director for the by-election.

“The claim is inaccurate. We didn’t wear PAS attire, but PN’s blue uniform, which is why the PAS machinery did not stand out,” he told FMT when dismissing the findings of a think tank released on the eve of polling.

Halim also said Khairul Azhari Saut of Bersatu was competing under the PN banner and not PAS’s.

“We were told to wear the PN uniform. That is why you did not see us wearing green,” he said, referring to PAS’s colours.

Last week, Ilham Centre claimed that PAS was noticeably more muted in campaigning for Khairul.

PAS vice-president Amar Abdullah had also brushed off such claims, saying the party merely adopted a different campaign strategy by going door-to-door instead of speaking at ceramahs.

“I’m not sure where the assessment (by the think tank) came from. But maybe from their perspective, we were not that aggressive because we didn’t take part in many ceramahs,” he said.

Halim also rubbished the observations by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu political analyst Yusri Ibrahim, who said PAS’s machinery did not go all out.

He said Selangor PAS was aided by the machinery from Perlis, Terengganu, Kelantan, Kedah, and Pahang.

“Everyone went all out,” he said, adding that one polling centre even saw PN garner a higher majority than Pakatan Harapan.

“This is a positive sign and our data show that a majority of voters below the age of 40 were backing PN,” he said.

On Saturday, PH’s candidate, Pang Sock Tao of DAP, won the by-election with a 3,869-vote majority over Khairul after garnering 14,000 votes. Khairul secured 10,131 votes.