PETALING JAYA (April 5): PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali said the list of election candidates for Pakatan Rakyat will be announced on Monday.

He said the opposition coalition has finalised 95% of the seats for its candidates and there are a few more contentious seats to be ironed out.

He also said the 10 additional seats allocated for PAS in the impending general election were mostly in Sabah and Sarawak.

"We did not contest these seats in the 2008 general election," Mustafa told reporters at the PKR headquarters after a meeting with other Pakatan leaders.

Also at the meeting were PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, DAP national deputy chairman Tan Kok Wai and PAS election director Dr Hatta Ramli.

Mustafa declined to reveal if he would be contesting any seat.

Born in Terengganu, the party veteran was MP for Kuala Terengganu and Dungun as well as state assembly member for Pengkalan Berangan in a political career spanning 39-years.

He lost to BN’s Alias Abdullah in the Air Limbat seat in Terengganu in the last general election.

Party insiders reportedly said Mustafa would be sitting out of the 13th general election and would instead work behind the scenes to mastermind strategies in an effort to quash Barisan Nasional (BN).

Azmin said PAS were only allocated the seats in Sabah which PKR had contested in the last general election.

"We are kind-hearted people so we decided to give them our seats," he quipped.

"PAS has never contested in Sabah and (party) leaders proposed for Muslim-majority seats in the state to be given to them.

"There is no problem because DAP is focusing on urban areas," he added.

He said the ten additional seats allocated to PAS also include state seats.

Azmin also Pakatan only has to finalise overlapping seats in three states – Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.

He said so far, the finalisation is minor such as only three state seats in Johor need conclusion.

On Johor PKR chief Datuk Chua Jui Meng's seat in the upcoming general election, Azmin said the party has proposed several seats in the state for Chua to contest, but it would require an endorsement from the leadership.

"We will be having a lengthy meeting on Sunday and hopefully, we can finalise the seats then," he said.