Baru (second left) speaking during the press conference while (from left) PKR central elections department operations manager Ismail Yusop, Dr Xavier and state PKR vice chairman See Chee How look on.
KUCHING: PKR hopes to double its number of seats in the State Legislative Assembly in this 11th state election and says winning more than that would a bonus.
“Really, anything that is beyond six seats would be a bonus to us. From what we observed, there is a possibility (we can win) but at the same time, this will be a very difficult election,” PKR Sarawak leader Baru Bian said in a press conference here yesterday.
Baru, who is seeking re-election to be Ba Kelalan assemblyman, said the party was aware that the ruling BN coalition had started ‘pouring’ money into areas won by the opposition in the previous election, such as in Ba Kelalan, in order to win back the constituencies.
On the other hand, PKR vice president Dr A Xavier Jayakumar said PKR would stand to win many more seats if the state election is held in an open, fair and free manner.
Nevertheless, Baru said the party was very confident of the areas they had identified.
PKR had announced that it would contest in 40 state constituencies.
“We have been working in those areas and we have KPI (key performance indicator) for those areas. So from our own perspective, observation and confidence, we have winnable candidates.”
On the overlapping claims on seats between PKR and DAP, Baru said this was expected as there were bound to be disagreements but fundamentally, both the Pakatan Harapan (PH) partners were able to recognise that the main enemy is BN.
“One should not conclude that we (Pakatan Harapan) are disunited just because of (overlapping seat claims) in one or two seats. This is the process whereby we would like to have the most winnable candidates for the coalition.
“It is unfortunate if we don’t reach consensus at the end of the day but we are together in other areas.”
While he would in his power avoid seats with overlapping claims, he said “this whole thing needs both hands to act to be able to clap. In our position and my position, I will see how we can avoid this.”
Meanwhile, Dr Xavier said all PH components (PKR, DAP and Amanah) should understand that they have to work together to get more representatives in the State Legislative Assembly, pointing out only with a large number of representatives that they can make a difference in the august house.
“We should be looking at the best candidate that will be able to win that particular seat irrespective of political parties as far as PH is concerned. We have to start working and thinking as a unit in order to get a better voice in the Dewan.”