KOTA KINABALU: Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Pakatan Harapan is coming close to sealing a seat sharing deal following their latest meeting at the Chief Minister's official residence Sri Gaya here on Thursday.
Pakatan secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail met with a GRS team comprising of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) president Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam, Usno president Tan Sri Pandikar Amin and GRS secretary-general Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun to discuss the electoral cooperation.
The discussions were focused on seat sharing between the six local parties and four parties from the national coalition.
Pandikar, who is spokesman for GRS, said that negotiations were cordial and they reached a general agreement of seat sharing ratio for the 73 seats in the soon to be held state election.
However, he said they were still discussing certain seats as they needed to ensure that such seats allocated to either GRS or Pakatan would be winnable.
"It is no point contesting so many seats, if you can't win it," Pandikar said when contacted.
Pandikar declined to say what the seat sharing formula was being looked at in the negotiations, only saying, "we are still ironing out some issues."
Pandikar said caretaker Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor had met with Saifuddin at Seri Gaya but did not participate in the meeting for the seat negotiations.
In a Facebook post, Saifuddin said that he had been tasked by Pakatan to lead negotiations with "friendly parties”.
He expressed optimism, stating that the talks are progressing well and are expected to produce positive and encouraging outcomes.
It is learned that Pakatan is looking at between 21 and 23 seats in the coming election with GRS keen to contest up to 55 seats.
Apart from PBS and Usno, GRS comprises Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat) led by Hajiji, Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah (Harapan Rakyat) led by Tan Sri Liew Yun Fah, Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) led by Tan Sri Anifah Aman and Liberal Democratic Sabah (LDP) led by Datuk Chin Su Phin.
Pakatan's PKR is looking to contest 10 to 13 seats, DAP is eying six to eight seats, local party based Upko led by Datuk Ewon Benedick is looking at least five to seven seats while Amanah is also keen to contest in five seats.
