Clashes shatter PR unity

http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=114449 Posted on April 5, 2011, Tuesday

OVER TO YOU: Azmin (right) presents authorisation letter to Tebedu candidate Dr Christopher Kiyui.

KUCHING: Unless any of their potential candidates pull out at the last minute or was disqualified from contesting, it appears that Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) will square off with Sarawak National Party (SNAP) in 26 of the 71 state seats in the coming state election.

This is because out of the 48 seats to be contested by PKR, 26 are overlapping with those claimed earlier by SNAP. SNAP recently announced that it would be contesting in 27 Dayak-majority seats while PKR deputy president Mohd Azmin Ali when announcing the party’s candidate list here yesterday said the party would contest in all the seats claimed by SNAP except for Marudi and Pakan.

Azmin said they decided not to contest in Marudi out of their respect for SNAP president Edwin Dundang whom he said had been working so hard in the area over the years. However, he said they would not do the same in other areas where PKR candidates were believed to be more winnable compared with those put up by SNAP.

He agreed that a one-on-one contest with Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate would be more favourable but since SNAP refused to compromise then PKR had no option but to leave it to the people of Sarawak to make the decision on polling day.

“We have been trying very hard to achieve consensus with SNAP but unfortunately, they insisted to contest in 27 Iban majority seats and leaving no option to Keadilan (PKR) to be represented in those areas.

“In my last meeting with SNAP, this matter had been discussed, we both agreed mutually that finally we have to base on winnable factors, so one of the factor is the credibility of the candidates proposed by Keadilan and also SNAP and it is based on such factors that we have decided to put our candidates in those areas,” said Azmin. On the possibility that there would be split of opposition votes in events of multi-cornered fights, Azmin said they had tried their level best to discuss with the SNAP leadership to avoid clashes but to no avail.