SEATS NEGO: Only Johor, Sabah & S'wak left to sort out, Gelang Patah NOT among them - Azmin

VIDEOS INSERTED UPDATE 3 Pakatan Rakyat has finalized seats negotiations in 10 states, leaving only Johor, Sarawak and Sabah still to be sorted out, said PKR deputy president Azmin Ali.

Azmin, the Gombak MP, had been huddled in a closed-door meeting with PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali and DAP elections director Tan Kok Wai for most of Friday afternoon.

"Today, our focus was on three states - Johor, Sabah and Sarawak. And we have agreed to have another round involving the top leadership of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, YB Kit Siang and the PAS president (Hadi Awang) on Monday," Azmin told reporters who crowded round him as left the meeting at around 6pm.

"These are the 3 states where we still have some overlapping seats. All the other states have been concluded, the entire seats allocation whether at parliamentary or state level. There may be some adjustments but we are not demanding Gelang Patah (Johor). That is over and we want to move forward."

Not demanding Gelang Patah but we want Jui Meng to lead the PKR charge in Johor

When asked if the problematic seats in Johor involved PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng, Azmin said the party was trying to find the latter a suitable seat as they wanted him to lead the PKR's charge in the southern state.

However, Azmin pointed out the Johor negotiations centered around 3 state seats and only one parliamentary seat. Jui Meng, should he contest, is slated for a parliamentary seat.

"Certainly we want him to play a key role in Johor. And he has agreed. We will try to find him a suitable seat but that is subject to discussion as I mentioned Johor  is one of the key states under discussion and the decision will be made by the top leadership," said Azmin.

Jui Meng had been slated to contest at Gelang Patah, but Anwar had ceded the PKR seat to DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, who had wanted to leave his Ipoh Timur seat to purportedly help PR stir up a "tsunami from the south".

"I had a house and that was called Gelang Patah. I was asked to work there. Later I was asked to leave and of course it was good that the party said it would look for another for me. But unfortunately up to now, no doors have been opened to me. And I have said, that does not matter to me. What matters is that PR wins and wins big," Jui Meng had told a press conference earlier in the morning.

"At this moment, there is no seat that can be said to be offered to me. At the moment PKR has 11 parliamentary seats. We had 12 seats. I am not in the business of usurping anyone. I intend to make sure all these people (his PKR colleagues) win. But it is not in my character to ask anyone to make way for me."

Sabah and Sarawak

In Sarawak and Sabah, Azmin disclosed that PAS had wanted to take on more seats. It also wanted to contest in Labuan, a seat that was previously contested by the PKR.

"They need seats that have Muslim-majority and we will try to accomodate. And these seats, they can only take from PKR, not DAP which is going for the urban seats. In my past discussion with Anwar, in general he had no problems with that. But we need to look at their (PAS) proposal," said Azmin.

The PKR No. 2 pointed out that PAS was a 'newbie' in East Malaysia and in 2008, had not contested any seats there.

As for Labuan, Azmin said he and PAS sec-gen Mustafa Ali would make a joint announcement soon.

Mustafa, who had earlier told reporters his party was working on seats in East Malaysia, had declined to reveal details.

"I can't tell you, that would be revealing all our secrets," Mustafa joked, when pressed to tell which were the seats that were still being sorted out.

BN still lagging in seats allocation, manifesto

Azmin also dismissed talk of heated infighting over seats amongst the Opposition parties, which are rated as having a good chance of wresting the federal government from the ruling Umno-BN coalition in the coming general election.

"As I said before, 95% of the allocations are complete. Even in Johor, we are talking about 3 seats and that to me is very minor. I am very happy to work with Mustafa and Kok Wai," said Azmin.

Despite the Umno-BN media accusing the PR of infighting and being unable to conclude their seats allocation, caretaker prime minister Najib Razak too has yet to finalise the BN's list of candidates.

Najib had dissolved Parliament on Wednesday and is due to unveil the BN manifesto tomorrow night. The PR presented theirs in February and has already launched an official website on their plans for the country[http://pakatan-harapan-rakyat.com ].

Malaysia Chronicle