PUTRAJAYA: Pakatan Harapan is confident that avoiding clashes with Barisan Nasional and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) will be key to securing victory in the 17th Sabah state election.
Pakatan secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (pic) said he had been entrusted by chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to lead negotiations with Barisan and GRS to avoid or minimise seat clashes among the unity government partners.
He said negotiations with Barisan had been successful, resulting in no seat clashes between the two coalitions, while discussions with GRS had also been concluded.
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"The best outcome (in seat negotiations) is to avoid (clashes) altogether, but if that’s not possible, minimise them as much as we can. The objective is to strengthen our chances of winning.
"I finalised the (seat negotiations) about a week ago, after arranging for GRS to meet Datuk Seri Anwar in Kuala Lumpur, followed by a meeting with Barisan,” he said when interviewed at his office here recently.
However, Saifuddin Nasution acknowledged that although negotiations had been finalised, there were still requests from all parties regarding seat allocations for the state election.
"In the past day or two, there have been one or two requests from Barisan, GRS and Pakatan. I believe that until Nomination Day, we can still manage one or two of these seats.
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"Overall, I can conclude that we have resolved the negotiations with Barisan and GRS,” he said.
He added that the seat negotiation process was a demanding task that required considerable time, but his experience since 1999 had helped ease the process.
"The bottom line is to avoid clashes as much as possible, with the goal being to improve our chances of winning.
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"My role is mainly to conduct the seat negotiations... it’s very time-consuming, high-pressure, and not an easy task,” he said.
Nomination for the state election is on Saturday (Nov 15), with polling two weeks later on Nov 29.
The Sabah State Legislative Assembly has 79 seats, of which 73 are contested, while the remaining six are appointed members.
Ten PKR candidates are reportedly set to contest out of the 23 seats allocated to Pakatan in the state election. – Bernama
