Former deputy minister confident of PR victory in Sabah

A former federal deputy minister from Sabah is confident that Pakatan Rakyat would win in Sabah and grab 18 parliamentary seats t

Yahya Lampong who served as Rural Development deputy minister in former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's cabinet, said thirteen of the parliamentary seats favouring PR are from areas with majorities of Kadazan, Dusun, Murut and Chinese voters, while the remaining five are Muslim majority seats.

Yahya, among several veteran politicians in Sabah who joined PKR last year, was speaking at a PAS programme in Kuala Lumpur attended by some 300 new members representing different fields and professions.

"We are convinced that in Sabah, the majority of Chinese voters have already rejectd Barisan Nasional and will give strong support (to Pakatan Rakyat)," he said, while crediting PKR de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim for successfully bringing all community leaders together for a common goal.

Prior to this, Yahya predicted that PR would win 118 of the total 222 parliamentary seats, while BN could be left with 104 seats.

He said that the conclusion was based on what he called the "82+20+16" formula, 82 being the number of seats won by PR in 2008, 20 being BN’s parliamentary seats with non-Malay majorities while 16 being seats from Sabah.

"Any parliamentary seats from Sarawak will be a bonus,” he told Harakahdaily last year.

-Harakahdaily