WITH 24 hours left before campaigning for Sabah polls begins, the state’s warring coalitions have yet to settle seat allocations among their component parties.

This is despite the flurry of press conferences and announcements by Sabah Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional and Warisan Plus on their candidates yesterday.

The three alliances are the biggest blocs contesting 73 seats in the September 26 elections.

Sabah BN and PN are both working together against Warisan Plus, but despite their senior leaders making public calls for unity and comradeship, parties in both Sabah BN and PN have not reached a consensus.

Failure to reach a settlement would mean allies will field candidates against each other, giving their rivals an advantage.

Analysts have warned that reaching an agreement on seats is key to victory in Sabah, where contests have historically involved multiple parties stealing votes from each other.

Warisan Plus is made up of Parti Warisan Sabah, DAP, Upko and PKR. These parties have ruled Sabah between May 2018 and July this year, when the state assembly was dissolved.

They are being challenged by a political front made up of Sabah BN, PN and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).

Sabah BN consists of Sabah Umno, Sabah MCA and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), while PN is made up of Sabah Bersatu, PAS, SAPP and Star.

Sources in all three blocs said the points of conflict are between:

* Sabah Umno (BN) and STAR (PN) over Paginatan;

* Sabah Umno and PBS over Tg Aru, Bengkoka and Telupid;

* PBRS (Sabah BN) and STAR over Tulid and Sook;

* PBRS and PBS over Matunggong, Tandek and Kadamaian; and,

* PBS and Sabah MCA in Kepayan and Karamunting.

It is learnt that Sabah BN, PN and PBS are set to announce a pact tentatively called Muafakat Sabah but those plans are now on hold pending negotiations.

Senior officials of both parties are still trying to hammer out an agreement.

Sabah Umno is contesting 31 seats, Sabah MCA (4), PBRS (5), and PN (29). PBS said it will contest 15 seats.

On the Warisan Plus side, its component parties reached a late compromise today when PKR agreed to contest seven seats from its original demand of 14.

PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said the party wants to contest 14 seats in Sabah but Warisan Plus said yesterday PKR had been given seven seats.

Soon after, Anwar’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador took to Facebook to insist the party contest the 14 seats it was claiming because it had 170,000 members spread throughout Sabah.

Hours later, Warisan president Mohd Shafie Apdal defended the plan, saying it was crafted based on the party judged most able to win those seats.

PKR is claiming all 14 seats because it has a high number of active branches and members in those constituencies.

But in a late meeting, Sabah PKR chief Christina Liew said they reached a compromise with Warisan and will be contesting only seven seats.

Warisan is fielding candidates in 46 seats, Upko (12), DAP (6) and Amanah (1).

Political scientist Dr Jeneri Amir said it is imperative each coalition get its act together and ensure allies do not contest against each other.

“The candidates are important but it is more crucial for the machinery and members of one coalition to work together and vote for their agreed candidate,” said Jeneri of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

“If they split their votes among multiple candidates in the same bloc, then their rival will have the upper hand.”

Leaders of all three blocs still have 24 hours to reach a settlement before nomination papers are filed tomorrow. – September 11, 2020.