AVOIDING CLASHES VITAL FOR SABAH POLL VICTORY - SAIFUDDIN NASUTION

By Mohd Ashraf Syafiq Mazlan

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 12 (Bernama) -- Pakatan Harapan (PH) is confident that avoiding clashes with Barisan Nasional (BN) and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) will be key to securing victory in the 17th Sabah state election.

PH secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said he had been entrusted by PH chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to lead negotiations with BN and GRS to avoid or minimise seat clashes among the coalition partners.

He said negotiations with BN had been successful, resulting in no seat clashes between the two parties, while discussions with GRS had also been concluded.

“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 BN,” he told Bernama in an exclusive interview led by editor-in-chief Arul Rajoo Durar Raj at his office here.

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 BN, GRS and PH. I believe that until nomination day, we can still manage one or two of these seats.

“Overall, I can conclude that we have resolved the negotiations with BN 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 to ease the process.

“The bottom line of this negotiation process is to avoid clashes as much as possible, with the goal of improving our chances of winning.

“My role is mainly to conduct the seat negotiations...it’s very time-consuming, highly pressured and not an easy task,” he said.

Nomination for the state election is on Saturday and polling on Nov 29.  

The Sabah State Assembly has 79 seats, of which 73 are contested, while the remaining six are appointed assembly members.

Ten Parti Keadilan Rakyat candidates are reportedly set to contest, representing part of the 23 seats allocated to PH in the state election.

-- BERNAMA