Pakatan convention: Amanah eyeing more Johor state seats

SHAH ALAM: Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) plans to ask for more state seats in Johor as it was given the least parliamentary seats to contest in the upcoming general election.

Amanah deputy president Salahuddin Ayub (pic) said he acknowledged the dissatisfaction by state delegates who chose to boycott the ongoing Pakatan Harapan convention over the finalised parliamentary seat distribution.

“We are willing to work for more state seats and we will continue to pursue this,” he said when met at the sidelines of the convention here at Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) here Sunday.

Pakatan had reached its consensus on parliamentary seat distribution in a meeting on Saturday night (Jan 6).

Of the 165 peninsula seats, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Pribumi) has been allocated 52, PKR, 51, DAP, 35, and Amanah, 27.

PKR will be contesting the highest number of seats, taking into account the seats it will also contest in Sabah and Sarawak.

In Johor, Amanah is only contesting two parliamentary seats - Parit Sulong and Pulai - instead of five parliamentary seats they had asked for.

Salahuddin, who is also Johor Amanah information chief, said, however, the delegates were “not breaking consensus” with their boycott call.

“I respect and appreciate what happened in Johor because they expressed their dissatisfaction," he said.

Meanwhile, Amanah secretary-general Anuar Tahir insisted that there was no boycott.

“This is not boycott. They’re just not here. There’s a rumour saying that they are not happy, but sometimes during seat negotiations, they can’t get what they ask for,” he said.

Anuar said the party will schedule a meeting on Monday (Jan 7) with party president Mohamad Sabu to discuss the matter.

“This is not a big problem, and can be resolved,” he said.