GEORGE TOWN, April 20 — Barisan Nasional (BN) in Penang will be given the chance to defend its two incumbent seats in Penang in the upcoming state polls, said Penang Pakatan Harapan chairman Chow Kon Yeow.

He said it was decided in the DAP central executive committee meeting yesterday that all seats will return to the incumbent parties.

"The secretary-general has reiterated that all seat negotiations will be based on the agreed principle that all seats will go back to incumbent parties,” he said when asked about seat negotiations with BN or Umno for the upcoming state polls.

He said based on the principle that incumbent parties will get to defend the seats they had held previously, this meant that Umno would be defending their two seats in Penang: Sungai Dua and Permatang Berangan.

"Based on this principle, we will not request for their seats and this should be reciprocal [that they won’t be requested for our seats],” he said.

However, he said that those seats that were not won by PH in the previous elections are open for negotiations.

Penang has a total of 40 state seats and in the 2018 general elections, PH won 37 seats, when Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia was still part of Pakatan Harapan (PH).

BN had two seats while PAS had one seat, Penaga.

After Bersatu left the PH coalition and two PKR assemblymen were fired from the party and later joined Bersatu, the four seats — Seberang Jaya, Sungai Acheh, Teluk Bahang and Bertam — fell under Perikatan Nasional.

However, the four were evicted from the state legislative assembly in March after the legislative assembly approved a motion to force them to vacate their seats in accordance with the state’s anti-hopping law.