PAS' defeat in the Kuala Berang by-election in Terengganu on Saturday was due to an ineffective campaign strategy and the decision to hold its annual meet (muktamar) on the same date.

These, said Barisan Nasional (BN) strategists, cost the opposition party the state seat, which was won by Mohd Zawawi Ismail with a 2,059 majority.

"The timing of the muktamar was bad. They could have postponed it because it exposed the party's weaknesses.

"The voters saw it, they felt how could PAS lead us when they have so many problems," said BN by-election campaign director Muhammad Muhd Taib.

Prior to the Aug 28 by-election, newspapers provided prominent coverage to the PAS meet, which among others saw delegates taking the leadership to task over the dismal performance in the general election.

Muhd Taib, who is Umno vice-president, said he was happy that the ruling coalition had retained the Kuala Berang seat with an increased majority.

He added that the strong Umno Youth and Puteri Umno machineries also played significant roles in securing the victory.

'Megalomaniac' Hadi

Umno Youth campaign coordinator for the by-election Khairy Jamaluddin said the wing had received a warm response from young voters.

"Umno Youth and Puteri Umno worked hard and we managed to get a lot of young people to support us," he said when met after the result was announced Saturday night.

Khairy also pointed out that the PAS muktamar was ill-timed and the party's resources were visibly diverted hence leading to defeat.

"They did have a lot of people coming from outside Hulu Terengganu but it didn't help. I was told a lot of PAS leaders didn't want to contest as they knew they would lose," he added.

However, he claimed that the 'megalomaniac' PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang wanted to prove a point but he failed.

Khairy, who is Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son-in-law, also noted that the PAS campaign was 'secretive and low key'.

"Secretive and low-key because they had no strategy, it was a total failure. The PAS leadership has failed to reach out and respond to the people or come up with new ideas," he said.

Strategy is fine

However, a PAS insider argued that the party had to resort to a low-profile approach in order to avoid being attacked by the media.

Furthermore, he said since Kuala Berang was a small constituency, the party did not require nationwide publicity.

"We were confident that the house to house campaign and man to man approach were more effective," he added.

On the same note, PAS by-election campaign director Harun Taib said the party had issued three media statements in two weeks but the media did not publish them.

Asked if the result indicated the need to review PAS's strategy, he said: "Our strategy is fine. It's just that the people cannot accept the best we can offer and at the same time, BN abused the state resources such as the media."

Harun also dismissed the claim that the muktamar had a role to play in the defeat as members were equally divided for the meet and by-election.