Mustafa: Pakatan seat talks at tail-end
Tarani Palani, fz.com
With seat negotiations between Opposition allies at its tail end, any party which demands for additional seats at this juncture would have to bear in mind whether there is a supply of additional seats left to be distributed.
PAS Secretary General Datuk Mustafa Ali said this in response to his DAP counterpart Lim Guan Eng’s announcement during the weekend party congress that the party would like three more parliamentary seats and 10 more state seats.
However, the PAS party veteran was quick to add that Lim’s request was nothing to be jittery about as it was understood that he was playing to party supporters.
“There is nothing wrong with asking for seats because every political party is seeking for more seats. But (if there are) seats left to be distributed (is something to bear in mind),” he said in an interview with fz.com recently.
For Mustafa, who was present at the congress in Penang to hear Lim’s speech, the DAP leader’s announcement was neither suprising nor the opposite.
“I was there, I heard what he said, but I didn’t ask him,” said Mustafa chuckling. “I feel (the announcement) was more to pacify (party) grassroots who are looking for a seat increase”.
Mustafa who heads the PAS team in the Pakatan Rakyat election consultative council on seat negotiations, said that talks usually took place in the committee and that there was “not much” left to negotiate. He was mostly tight lipped on the matter, merely saying that most of the negotiations had already taken place this year.
DAP Deputy Chairperson Tan Kok Wai and PKR Deputy President Azmin Ali are the heads of the other parties in the committee.
Mustafa repeated what many Pakatan leaders had said on the criteria for seat allocations. For the coalition, which will face its first general election as a formal alliance, the formula would be to more or less stick to its status quo in 2008.
“Each party forwards its suggestions. But we mostly use as one of our guidelines the 2008 status quo. We know what the status quo is, so it’s plus or minus that. (That will be the basis) for exchange of seats or discussions similar to that,” he said.
He added that despite of announcements made by party leaders, the final outcome would depend on negotiations between the parties.
Mustafa also said that he did not foresee any difficulty in finalising Pakatan’s list of candidates as it could be settled at the committee stage.
He said that in case one particular candidate cannot be agreed upon, then the matter will be brought up to the party Presidents. He however said that it may not come to that extent as most of the negotiations have gone on smoothly.
