Pakatan’s seat tussle a boon for Sabah BN
Mohd Farhan Darwis, The Malaysian Insider
Barisan Nasional (BN) will profit from the current seat scramble between Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Sabah’s opposition parties to win the next polls, state BN leaders have said.
Sabah BN leaders told The Malaysian Insider that they hope to fully use the advantage from altercations between federal PR leadership and parties such as Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), Sabah Reform Front (APS) and Pertubuhan Pakatan Perubahan Sabah (PPPS).
“We do have an advantage … but (BN) will take a look-and-see approach,” Sabah BN secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan (picture) said here.
Silam MP Salleh Kalbi agreed with Abdul Rahman, and explained that the scramble is similar to what happened with Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) in the past.
“Obviously, the alliance did not last long,” he added.
PBS information chief Datuk Johnny Mositun stressed that the discussions between PR and the component parties were clearly lopsided, considering SAPP was only given a small number of seats.
“The discussions have been going on for so long without a conclusion … I think SAPP’s leadership can see for themselves, they might end up with the same fate as PBS before,” he said.
Mositun explained that PBS has also organised a number of seat talks with PKR president Datuk Seri Wan Azizah, but its demands have largely been ignored.
Abdul Rahman pointed out that it has been common for PKR to demand the lion’s share of seats, despite failing to win any.
“We see this happening in Sarawak elections too, where they contested 49 out of 71 seats, but they could win only three,” said the Kota Belud MP.
He also predicted that PR will lose most of its contested seats, in particular around 33 to 34 seats in Muslim Bumiputera-majority areas.
Mositun was convinced that the seat allocation issue will shift Sabahans’ support to BN, since it has been proven that BN component parties can sit together and work their differences out.
“With these problems, (PR) is not showing a good example that they can govern the country, whatever that they have been doing was strictly political for the general elections,” he declared.
Last week, The Malaysian Insider reported that PR’s seat talks with the SAPP have come to a temporary halt in yet another indicator that it may be a fractured opposition front that will face BN in Election 2013.
