Chong (seated, second left). PKR Sarawak chairman Baru Bian (seated, second right) and Bersatu Sarawak chairman Jaziri Alkaf Abdillah Suffian (seated right) at the press conference.
KUCHING: Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak will seek to prevent any overlapping claims from its component parties contesting the 82 seats in the 12th State Election.
“There won’t be any overlapping (claims on) seats. We will finalise it (the seat allocation) in the sense that everybody will agree on the seats allocated,” he told reporters after chairing PH Sarawak’s first meeting for 2020 at DAP Sarawak headquarters today.
The next state election, which must be held by mid-2021, will see PH Sarawak contesting as a coalition of four parties as Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) are joined by new partner Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).
Bersatu Sarawak, which was launched on Dec 1 in 2018, has expressed interest in contesting in several seats, which means some of the PH components will have to give way to accommodate this.
In the 11th State Election in 2016, there were six seats with overlapping candidates from DAP and PKR, namely in Mulu, Mambong, Murum, Simanggang, Ngemah and Batu Kitang.
Neither of these seats were won by DAP nor PKR.
DAP won seven of the 31 seats contested in 2016, while PKR won three out of the 40 seats contested. Amanah, on the other hand, failed to win any of the 13 seats allocated.
Earlier, in his opening address at the press conference after the meeting, Chong said PH Sarawak has set the deadline for conclusion of the seat negotiations amongst the four parties.
“No matter what happens, by that deadline all parties must agree to the seat allocation. There will be not be last minute seat allocations, like what happened before.
“Don’t ask me when is the deadline but it will be well before the state election,” he said.
He also said PH Sarawak has reached a consensus that they should work twice as hard in the run up to the state election, and to stand as a united front, offering a true viable alternative for Sarawakians.
“We all agree Sarawak has been under the uninterrupted government of GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak), and before that it was known as BN (Barisan Nasional) and Alliance. This are the same group of people governing Sarawak for the past 56 years.
“Therefore I think it is important and it is necessary that Pakatan Harapan have to work hard and offer Sarawakians a choice and alternative of a new government. This is particularly so because despite 56 years of uninterrupted rule, Sarawak is lagging behind the other states (in Malaysia),” he said.