It’s subterfuge, says Perak Pakatan

The Perak State Legislative Assembly sitting has been moved forward to April 12 in a deliberate attempt to spoil Pakatan's election campaign in Sarawak, says DAP.

IPOH: Perak DAP alleged that the state government is sabotaging Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers’ attempts to campaign in Sarawak for the state election on April 16.

Its deputy chief V Sivakumar said this was because the date for the start of the Perak State Legislative Assembly initially scheduled from April 5 has now been moved to April 12.

“This change of the sitting date has put a damper on Pakatan lawmakers’ plans to fully take part in the Sarawak state polls.

“I see no reason for the change of dates except for the fact that Perak BN government wants to sabotage our campaigning in Sarawak,” said Sivakumar, a former Pakatan assembly speaker.

“The sympathy factor for Pakatan when BN forcefully took over the state (Perak) will be a major plus point in our campaign in Sarawak and we were hoping to exploit this to the utmost,” he said.

Sivakumar said that the notice of the original assembly sitting for April 5 was sent to all Pakatan lawmakers by assembly secretary Rumazi Baharin on March 1.

“We sent in our oral and written questions to the secretary last week and are making preparations to take part in the assembly, which we expected to last a few days like in the past sittings,” he said.

According to Sivakumar, the DAP state headquarters received a fax from the assembly secretary that the date of the assembly has been postponed to April 12.

“The BN government has deliberately put a damper on our Sarawak election preparations which leaves us practically no time to go to Sarawak,” he added.

“It is a dirty political tactic by BN to sabotage our election campaigning plans,” said Sivakumar.