Sarawak PKR says won’t give up Batu Lintang, Ba'Kelalan seats to PSB in state election

KUCHING, Nov 6 ― Sarawak PKR will not give up its Batu Lintang and Ba’Kelalan seats whose incumbents have now joined Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), its information chief Abun Sui Anyit said today.

“We will definitely put our candidates in these two seats,” he said when asked if PKR will give way to PSB in Batu Lintang and Ba’Kelalan.

Batu Lintang was won by See Chee How and Ba’Kelalan by Baru Bian when they were PKR members before they jumped over to PSB last year.

He said See and Baru cannot bring the seats with them to PSB, and the party will not cooperate or form any election pact with PSB in the state election.

“We have made a decision on this before. Initially, we agreed to work with PSB, but since it wanted to contest some of our seats, we cannot work with this kind of party.

“Moreover, I don’t think PSB is in favour of working together with PH. They want to contest all the 82 seats,” he said.

Abun said if DAP wants to give up some of its seats to PSB, then it is that party’s own business.

“In such a case, we will put our candidates in the seats that DAP gives to PSB. We have made this clear before,” he said, adding that any decision between DAP and PSB made must be agreeable by all PH partners.

Abun said he expects all the seats to see multi-cornered fights involving Pakatan Harapan, PSB, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and other local Opposition parties in the state election.

On the seat allocations among the PH partners, PKR, DAP and Amanah, Abun said it has not been settled yet, adding that there will be some changes to be made before a final list is decided.

“The formula used in the 2016 state election is not favourable to PKR as it was decided by the previous state leadership without consulting the election committee.

“Their decisions should not bind the present state leadership on seat allocation. We don’t know what was on the minds when they agreed to the formula,” he said.

Abun said any decision on the seat allocation formula will be made collectively by a committee for the state election.

Abun said the state PKR will write an official letter to the Election Commission (EC) to fix the polling date after December 31.

He said this will allow 18-year olds to cast their votes in the Sarawak election.

He added they will not be able to participate in the election if polling is held next month.