Pakatan in final lap of Selangor seat talks
By Syed Jaymal Zahiid, FMT
KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat is close to finalising its allocation of Selangor seats among component parties in preparation for the coming general election, according to DAP publicity chief Tony Pua.
“All smooth, barring three or four seats possibly being rotated, but that’s optional,” he said on the ongoing negotiations.
Pua is a member of Pakatan’s seat allocation committee.
The “three or four seats” that he spoke about are those that Pakatan lost in the 2008 general election. He said Pakatan might maintain the 2008 arrangement for these seats or allow swaps among the component parties.
However, a PKR source said swaps of other seats might also be allowed although the negotiations are guided by the principle that a party should keep the seats it won in the last election.
This was confirmed by DAP’s Lau Weng San, the state assemblyman for Kampung Tunku.
Lau also told FMT that “five to six” seats remained on the negotiating table.
“But the seat talks in Selangor are way milder compared to other states,” he said, probably referring to Johor, Pahang, Sarawak and Perak. A Pakatan official described negotiations in the four states as “frustrating”.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been candid about his do-or-die intention to recapture Selangor for Barisan Nasional. He is BN’s liaison chief for the state, which is Malaysia’s most developed.
