KUCHING: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) will be the sole factor in determining the formation of the next federal government.
Political analyst Dr Azmi Hassan presumed that the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and UMNO Sabah would support their own parties–the Barisan Nasional (BN)– leaving GPS to determine which coalition they thought would best suit Sarawak’s needs.
As such, he said the post 15th general election (GE15) will be interesting given that BN, and most probably Pakatan Harapan (PH) will gain the most parliamentary seats.
“I think most of the 165 seats in the peninsula will be shared by either PH or BN. So in this case, it is most probable that it is enough to form a government.
“(And) the rest, either one, will not achieve the 112 seats.
“So my presumption is that the kingmaker in this election will be the GPS. Because looking (at the scenario) on the ground in Sarawak and also on paper, most probably GPS will fill maybe 90 per cent of the 31 seats.
“It does not depend on the peninsula parties in terms of forming the federal government. It all depends on the GPS,” he told the New Sarawak Tribune.
He noted that the constitution does not have the clause or procedure where the party that gets the most seats will have the advantage in forming the government.
Hence, he reiterated that it all depends on the GPS.
“GPS must secure a good number of seats in the legislature, which is very likely at this particular stage of the campaign,” he said.
