As election clock ticks, PKR meets Shafie for 'reasonable' seat allocations

SABAH POLLS | PKR president Anwar Ibrahim met with Warisan leader Shafie Apdal this morning to discuss a “reasonable” number of seats for PKR in the upcoming Sabah elections.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who was present at the meeting, said the party was hoping to increase the number of seats to contest due to the addition of new state seats from 60 to 73 for this election.

“Seeing as there is an increase in seats, in order to realise PKR’s potential, we want to take this opportunity to place our candidates.

“Last time we contested in eight seats (in Sabah), so it is reasonable for PKR to have the opportunity to open up (and contest in more seats),” Saifuddin told reporters today, after speaking at a PKR roadshow at The Palace Hotel, Kota Kinabalu.

Sabah PKR, he said, has the second-highest number of members, behind only Selangor PKR and this increase in membership in Sabah means that Sabahans see the party’s unique strength. 

“Of course, with the increase in the party’s strength, followed by the hopes of party members… it makes sense that PKR is represented by a reasonable number of seats,” Saifuddin said earlier in his speech at the PKR roadshow.

He added that the best-case scenario would see the party getting the number of seats it asked for, while the worst-case would be receiving fewer seats than expected.

“Then what do we do? If it is fated that a seat is represented by Warisan, DAP, Upko or a party other than PKR, we will commit to our machinery there and not move it to the seats we are contesting (so it can help its allies contesting there instead).”

In return, its partners’ electoral machinery will also help PKR in areas where PKR is contesting as that is what cooperation is all about, he said.

Saifuddin Nasution Ismail

Saifuddin revealed that the meeting with Shafie was also to fine-tune and finalise matters related to their cooperation in the upcoming state polls.

However, he said they were still not finished with the discussion and will continue the meeting tomorrow.

“We still have one more week to finalise things. We have achieved a lot of progress, it is just the process of fine-tuning things."

He added that Shafie had spoken to them about the chances of Warisan and its allies in retaining their hold on the Sabah state government.

“Shafie said, based on all the preparations, intelligence and so on, he has strong confidence that we will be able to form the government together in Sabah again,” Saifuddin said.

The nomination day for the Sabah snap election will take place on Sept 12 while polling day is set for Sept 26. - Mkini