KUCHING: Has a seat-sharing agreement between the Pakatan Harapan parties been tossed out of the window?
That may well be the case given that Sarawak PH chairman Chong Chieng Jen on Saturday (Nov 27) appealed to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to stick to plan and focus on contesting the 47 seats allocated to the party.
“PKR should focus on winning as many seats as possible based on the agreed seat allocation instead of wasting valuable time and energy grabbing seats and lose the general goal to win the war against Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS),” he said.
According to him an agreement was struck on Jan 2 that PKR will contest 47 seats, DAP-26 seats while Amanah will contest nine seats in the 12th State Election that will now be held on Dec 18.
He said all three parties had signed the agreement following multiple rounds of negotiations.
“The many rounds of negotiations were made not only with Larry Sng but also with a few other state committees members of PKR. On top of that, Joshua Jabeng as well as Abang Zulkifli Abang Engkeh were regular attendees in the negotiations.
“On that day, Sng signed on behalf of the PKR state committee many of whom were present as well.
“The signing marked the decision of the PKR state committee as a whole, not Larry Sng’s alone,” he said, adding that Sng leaving the party did not mean the previous state committee’s decision was null and had to be revisited.
Chong stressed that the change of one office bearer did not affect the validity of the agreement as it was between party to party.
“On our part, we had also given up some seats in order to reach that agreement made on Jan 2,” said Chong who heads DAP in the state.
Sng who left PKR has since set up his own political party.
