PARTI Warisan Sabah and Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders spotted taking an early morning walk together today has fuelled expectation of an electoral pact, even though the “deadline” has passed for cooperation between the two parties. 

When approached, the leaders of Warisan and PH were evasive about when they would announce an alliance, stressing instead that the main objective was to take over the Sabah government. 

However, Warisan president Shafie Apdal said Warisan was working towards such an end.

“But in our mind, is not about who gets where and who gets who at the moment. It is about what the people want and that is a change of the present government. 

“To do this we must field the right candidates in the right seats. It is no use for us to get candidates and seats that we cant win. they must be winnable,” he told reporters after a Chinese New Year visit to the busy weekend market in Foh Sang, Kota Kinabalu.

Also present were Sabah PH chairman cum state PKR chief Christina Liew, Warisan vice-president Junz Wong, Sabah PKR vice-chairman John Ghani, and Warisan secretary Lorretto Padua Jr.

On January 24, Liew said PH had officially sent an invitation to Warisan to form an electoral pact, stating DAP, PKR and Amanah would each negotiate for seats with Warisan separately.

Liew later confirmed there had been no seat discussions although the party had set January 31 as the deadline for finalising a working pact. 

She had said that all talks must be completed before nomination day. 

Asked how the seat discussions were progressing today, the Api-Api assemblyman said: “Don’t worry about it, we will work this out and something will be worked out before the opposition goes to the battlefield.” 

Some observers said this morning’s gathering was a sign the oppositions was finally coming together, but others believed the visit was PH’s way of reminding Warisan that DAP would be contesting Luyang. 

Chris Chong, 45, said he believed Warisan did not expect PKR representatives to show up due to the  ongoing disagreement between DAP and Warisan. 

“There is a war between the two parties. DAP has been calling Warisan unfair. The Sabah part is not only campaigning in DAP’s areas, but has also told DAP to stay away from the rural seats,” he said. 

“Liew’s presence here could be more than just about cooperation between the opposition, but (because of) an obvious rift between the opposition.” 

Luyang, a Chinese-majority seat, is presently held by former DAP stalwart Hiew King Cheu, who resigned from the party to join MCA in September 2013, following a tiff with former party chairman Jimmy Wong, who is the current Kota Kinabalu MP.  

Hiew gave MCA its only seat in the state, after the party failed to win any in the 2013 general election. 

PKR members later told The Malaysian Insight that they, including Liew, were headed to Kapayan to join DAP at a walk.

They said instructions to go to Foh Sang came from the party leader at the last minute.

DAP has said it will contest five parliamentary and 12 state seats while Amanah Sabah has expressed interest in two parliamentary and three state seats. 

There are 25 parliamentary and 60 state seats in Sabah. – February 10, 2018.