S’wak DAP ‘happy’ with 15 winnable seats

KUCHING: Matters of overlapping seats between Sarawak DAP and PKR are settled. DAP will now contest in 15 seats as opposed to the 18 it wanted.

Expressing his relief, state DAP chairman Wong Ho Leng said all outstanding seat issues with PKR had been resolved and the party was ready to move ahead.

Wong said DAP would contest in 15 constituencies including Padungan whose incumbent assemblyman is PKR’s Dominique Ng.

DAP had swapped the seat for Batu Lintang, held by the party’s Voon Lee Shan.

Wong said the other seats were Padungan, Pending, Kota Sentosa, Batu Kawah, Simanggang, Meradong, Bukit Assek, Dudong, Pelawan, Bawang Assan, Kidurong, Piasau, Pujut and Batu Kota.

“We are happy now that both Padungan and Pending which is under the Bandar Kuching parliamentary seat are contested by DAP.

“The MP for Bandar Kuching is DAP secretary, Chong Chieng Jen,” Wong said.

State PKR chief Baru Bian said that the matter was resolved in the “spirit of Pakatan Rakyat”.

“I promised we will resolve the overlapping claims of seats with DAP and PAS.

“We resolved it in the spirit of Pakatan. We have come to this conclusion. It is a relief that we have come to this stage,” he said.

PKR-SNAP issues unresolved

Last week, an upset DAP had announced that negotiations between DAP and PKR had crashed after they were unable to resolve the seat issues.

DAP claimed that PKR had been insisting on contesting in 52 seats and is at odds with both DAP and Sarawak Nasional Party (SNAP) on overlapping seats. That meeting was held between DAP and PKR deputy president Azmin Ali. Bian was reportedly not present.

Meanwhile, PAS which was also present at yesterday’s press conference, announced that it would contest in five constituencies.