#PRNSarawak : DAP-PKR seat spat continues

Three days into the election campaign, PKR and DAP are like cats and dogs with both parties openly blaming each other for the seat allocation fiasco that led to both sides clashing in six seats.

The parties, which are part of Pakatan Harapan, held simultaneous press conferences yesterday to counter each other’s attacks.

At the PKR operations centre, vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar made it clear that the party would not take up DAP’s suggestion to withdraw from five seats in exchange for Batu Kitang.

He said PKR’s candidates in Mambong, Ngemah, Simanggang, Murum and Mulu all had strong credentials.

“These are people with proven track records of fighting for the people of Sarawak,” he said, adding that DAP should not split the votes.

Dr Xavier, who is Sarawak PKR joint operations director, said the one-for-five exchange of seats proposed by DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke showed that DAP was not serious about Batu Kitang.

“In comparison with the DAP candidate who was fielded at the last minute, PKR’s candidate for Batu Kitang, Voon Shiak Ni, has been working the ground for nearly 10 years.”

Over at DAP’s headquarters here, the party’s state chief Chong Chieng Jen told reporters they would “leave PKR alone” for now.

“As far as we are concerned, our battle is against Barisan Nasional. Let’s leave PKR alone.

“They can say what they want. Let’s just ignore them as we are close to defeating Barisan,” he said.

However, Chong accused PKR of affecting DAP’s popularity by contesting in Batu Kitang.

Citing a survey, he said the findings indicated that DAP had a winning chance of 55% compared with Barisan’s 45% in the seats it was eyeing.

“But because of PKR, I’d estimate that this has reduced our chances to 45%,” he said.

“I believe we can turn it around. Whatever is said by PKR, let’s just put it aside.”

He said DAP would not bow out of Bukit Kitang despite its earlier initiative to offer it to PKR.