Pakatan yet to decide on Sarawak seats
DAP Sarawak today tried to defuse simmering tensions between Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat partners PKR and the Sarawak National Party (Snap), saying seat negotiations are still in progress.
State DAP chief Wong Ho Leng acknowledged that there are several seats that at least two out of the four Pakatan partners are gunning for.
He stressed, however, that they will be able to iron out the details by the time the Sarawak elections come around.
“There is no use in Snap (announcing) the number of seats (it wants to contest), because we still need to go back to the negotiation table,” Wong said at the Parliament lobby today.
Yesterday, Snap president Edwin Dundang had declared his party’s intention to contest 16 state seats in the Sarawak polls in what is being seen as a move to pre-empt Sarawak PKR’s intention to go for 52 of the 71 state seats.
Edwin had lashed out at PKR for reportedly telling Snap to contest just three seats, calling the PKR “arrogant” for trying to “ride roughshod” over Snap.
Wong pointed out that DAP’s recent announcements on the seats it plans to contest are not an issue as the party is certain it would only face the BN in those seats.
“We know there will be no overlap in those seats, so we can make our announcements. But if the seats are overlapping, then there is no use (making an announcement). Even if an announcement is made, it does not mean a party is certain of contesting that seat,” he said.
Wong, who is also Bukit Assek assemblyperson, denied talk of a breakdown in seat negotiations.
He said that, despite the March 20 deadline to finalise the seat distribution among the four Sarawak Pakatan partners, it did not mean they would agree to contest against each other.
“There are no restrictions. It does not mean that we will fight among ourselves after March 20… we can leave negotiations open all the way till the night before nomination day,” he said.
Wong added that Snap’s decision to announce the seats it wished to contest is not a snub to Sarawak Pakatan, but rather, a sign of the state coalition’s openness to different schools of thought.
“We cannot stop them from announcing (the seats of their choice). We did not set any conditions, but (seat allocations) are subject to final negotiations,” he said.
DAP gunning for 18 seats
