Two Pakatan partners lock horns over seat-sharing formula
KOTA KINABALU: Tension seems to be rising between two Pakatan Harapan partners in Sabah barely 24 hours after one party revealed a 60:40 seat-sharing formula to allow local-based Parti Warisan Sabah to lead the opposition in the state.
Sabah PKR is disputing Sabah DAP’s unilateral announcement of the seat-sharing formula with Warisan, which is led by Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
Sabah Pakatan Harapan chairman Christina Liew told a news conference yesterday that a formu- la has yet to be worked out as the grouping is in the process of requesting a roundtable discussion on seats with Warisan.
Liew, who also heads Sabah PKR, did agree however that Pakatan is open to Warisan taking the lead for the Opposition in contesting state seats, but they have to discuss how the 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah will be shared.
Her clarification came after Sabah Pakatan deputy chairman Stephen Wong, who is state DAP chairman, said the grouping will offer 36 of the 60 state seats to Warisan. In exchange, Pakatan will take 15 of the 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah.
Wong, who spoke to reporters on Wednesday morning shortly after Pakatan deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin returned to Kuala Lumpur, said the formula was agreed upon by the grouping.
“This is not true,” Liew said yesterday.
“We haven't even decided and have not even negotiated with Warisan.”
She said she believed that the formula suggested by Wong was his own.
Asked if Pakatan was open to negotiations with other Sabahbased opposition parties including Gabungan Sabah, Liew said their doors were always open.
Hardly an hour after Liew’s press conference, Sabah DAP secretary Chan Foong Hin sent a WhatsApp message to the media saying that the party would not continue to pursue the matter in the press, but conduct seat negotiations through the proper channels.
Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking has more or less rejected the 60:40 formula, stating that his party was looking at winning twothirds of the state assembly and enough seats in Parliament to pursue state rights with the Federal Government.