DAP rubbishes Utusan report on 'seat dominance'

The DAP has trashed a front-page report in Utusan Malaysia which claims that the party is to contest 90 of the 222 parliamentary seats in the next general election, thereby enabling it to appoint its leader as prime minister if Pakatan Rakyat captures Putrajaya.

“Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish!” was the instant response of Anthony Loke, the DAP Socialist Youth chief, who is in the seat negotiation team.

“(The number of seats contested by) DAP is the least among the three (Pakatan parties). The negotiations are still going on but this is completely untrue. We are still the least in every state except Penang and Kuala Lumpur,” he said when contacted today.

Loke, who is also Rasah MP, said the “malicious report” was yet another attempt to frighten the Malays.

The Umno-owned daily front-paged the report today, basing it on a posting in suarapakatanrakyat.com, a blog that is purported to be 'pro-opposition'. It claimed to reveal the outcome of a seat allocation meeting among the three opposition parties.

Citing the blog, Utusan said PAS would contest only 66 seats although its president Abdul Hadi Awang wants 80 seats, while PKR will reduce its seats to 66, compared to 97 in the 2008 general election.

This would allow the DAP an additional 43 seats and place the party in the best position to appoint its leader as prime minister, if Pakatan wins at federal level, said the report.

“Moreover, with the split of Malay votes into three parts, DAP can easily win in parliamentary constituencies which have an equal number of Malays and non-Malays,” it said, quoting the blog.

To back the claim, Utusan said the information is supported by two other blogs - www.mykmu.net and www.pisau.net - both of which are known to be pro-Umno. 
          
‘Big brother role’

The report also highlighted a claim by www.mykmu.net that, even if the opposition fails to conquer Putrajaya, DAP would still at “three of four steps ahead of PAS and PKR” and that it would be seen as the “big brother” in the coalition.

The portal further said this seat arrangement will allow DAP to win more seats in the next general election, making PAS a stooge and PKR a strong supporter of DAP.

“With the support of non-Malay PKR representatives, the potential prime minister is no longer Anwar Ibrahim but a DAP leader. Even if Anwar is appointed to take care of Malay sentiment, he will only be a puppet, just as had happened in Perak previously,” reads the blog post.