Sarawak election: PKR, DAP yet to agree on seat allocation

Opposition parties DAP and PKR have yet to agree on seat allocation for the 11th Sarawak state election with polling fixed for May 7.

Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian said that the party was informed that the results of the ongoing negotiations on seat allocation at the national level among Pakatan Harapan's parties, were not in line with what had been decided at state level.

He said in light of this, the PKR state leadership council at its latest meeting decided to withdraw the mandate given to PKR leaders at the national level to negotiate with other parties in Pakatan Harapan in Kuala Lumpur regarding the matter.

Pakatan Harapan is made up of DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara or Amanah, which is hardly known in Sarawak.

"We will make the final decision on the seats we are contesting based on our KPI results. Our decision will be based purely on the winnability of our candidates, and not for other reasons," he told a press conference at the state PKR headquarters here Friday.

Meanwhile, Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen, at a media conference at the state DAP headquarters here, said the party had decided to contest 29 seats.

"DAP will stick to what has been agreed. If PKR does not stick to its word, there will be three-cornered fights," he said.

"DAP Sarawak will hold to our agreement, therefore, we hope PKR will respect what has been agreed in the meeting," he said, adding that DAP will announce its candidates list on April 20.

In the 2011 state election DAP contested in 15 constituencies and managed to capture 12 seats while PKR contested in 49, winning only three.

Eighty-two seats are up for grabs this time around.