SNAP quits Pakatan

KUCHING: After a brief but often tumultuous love-hate relationship with Pakatan Rakyat, SNAP has finally divorced the opposition coalition, citing irreconcilable differences.

The decision appears to have put paid to any hopes of merger talks between SNAP and DAP which the latter proposed immediately after the state polls last month.

SNAP said it decided to quit Pakatan after it was sidelined following disagreements on seat allocation in the recent state polls.

“We (SNAP) are no longer in Pakatan. We are now on our own,” declared secretary-general Stanley Jugol Friday.

The 50-year-old Dayak-based party was accepted into Pakatan about a year ago. With SNAP gone, DAP, PKR and PAS are now the only state Pakatan members.

Stanley said it was meaningless for SNAP to continue in Pakatan as the opposition alliance no longer invited his party to any council meeting or joint activities.

The last time SNAP attended a Pakatan joint council meeting was in March at DAP headquarters here to discuss seat allocations in the polls on April 16.

“After we disagreed with PKR over seat allocations, we were no longer invited to any Pakatan meeting or functions. This is the truth,” he said.

Due to the collapse of seat negotiations, SNAP and PKR were involved in multi-cornered fights with Barisan Nasional in 24 rural seats, most of them with Dayak-majority voters.

PKR has accused SNAP of being funded by the Barisan to split opposition votes but SNAP denied the allegation, arguing that Barisan was their common political enemy.

SNAP, which fielded 26 candidates, was wiped out in the polls, losing deposits in 25 of the seats while PKR won three of the 49 seats contested.

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