Muda is mulling going solo in the 15th general election as there is no progress in seat negotiations despite both sides already agreeing to form an electoral pact.
A well-placed source from Muda told Malaysiakini that there is still no official discussion of seat negotiations between Muda and Harapan to date, although a PKR leader implied otherwise.
This was also confirmed by Muda deputy president Amira Aisya Abd Aziz in a statement today.
It is understood that thus far, the only constituency confirmed for Muda is party president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman's Muar seat.
This is based on the agreement with Harapan, where both sides would not contest in incumbent seats.
Amira revealed that the two other agreements are to support Harapan's prime minister candidate and that Muda needs the Harapan presidential council's approval if it wants to engage with other parties.
For the Muda source, time is running out for seat negotiations.
“This agreement will mean nothing to us. Since we already agreed to form an electoral pact thus, we should move forward to discuss other seat allocations.
"This is unfair to us as we also need time to prepare for the election.
“We started to consider going solo as we could not wait any longer. The leadership might have a finalised answer after tomorrow’s meeting,” the source said.
The source revealed that Muda is only requesting six to seven parliamentary seats for this round, and this is not a voracious demand.
Meanwhile, Amira also vented frustrations over seat negotiations and demanded that Harapan sit down with them soon.
“People are asking, where will Muda contest? Honestly speaking, the official negotiation with Harapan has not started yet.
“As the Muda’s electoral chief, I had contacted Harapan leadership to have a discussion any time soon,” she said.
‘Be patient’
Muda's airing of grouses came a day before the Election Commission is scheduled to announce the GE15 timetable tomorrow.
This will be followed by the Harapan convention in Ipoh tomorrow night, where the coalition will announce its prime minister candidate, seat distributions, manifesto, and election theme song.
However, a Harapan source sympathetic to Muda said there is a good reason why the coalition has not begun seat negotiations with the youth party.
This is because the coalition has not resolved internal seat negotiations - which prevents them from progressing with negotiations with Harapan allies.
As such, the source hoped that Muda could be patient, and gave assurance that Harapan would be able to resolve their own internal discussions within the next two days.
“If Muda really goes solo, it would be a loss to both sides, and Muda will suffer the greater loss. I hope this would not happen,” the source said.
The source also viewed that Muda’s request on seat allocation is reasonable and not something that is too complex to put into consideration.
“Their request is reasonable and not complex to consider since the number of seats is not many.
“We do not have any intention to delay or buy time on this matter as we are really committed to working with Muda.
“The only matter is about the time constraint, and I can understand their frustration,” the source added.
‘Announcement soon’
Meanwhile, PKR's representative in the Harapan electoral pact committee Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad painted a much rosier picture when contacted.
Asked about the progress in seat negotiations, Nik Nazmi gave his assurance that talks are ongoing and that he had just met with Syed Saddiq this morning.
"It was okay, it was good," he said when asked how the meeting went, adding that an announcement will also be made soon.
If, and when Muda and Harapan do sit down for negotiations though, there might be some points of tension, specifically on how to interpret the agreement that there will be no clashes in incumbent seats.
According to sources from Harapan, the only seats that were open for negotiation were those contested by Bersatu, Warisan, or seats which Harapan lost in GE14.
For Muda, this includes seats won by PKR that defected to Bersatu - a view that PKR does not share. - Mkini
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