SEAT negotiations for Pakatan Harapan (PH) Selangor are in a state of confusion, with PKR the only component party to insist that formal negotiations have started, while its allies say a proper committee has not even been formed.

DAP Selangor chairman Tony Pua said he had no clue that talks were ongoing for PH Selangor as announced by PKR’s Zuraida Kamaruddin today.

Zuraida, the PH Selangor secretary, had issued a statement today to rebuff Amanah’s claim that a committee had yet to be formed to discuss the seat negotiations.

Zuraida said talks were being held by the state PH elections committee headed by Dr Xavier Jeyakumar and had seen four rounds of meetings already.

But Pua said this committee’s mandate was only to prepare election machinery and not to handle seat negotiations.

“I was not informed. DAP Selangor was also not informed about this,” he told The Malaysian Insight today.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said if seat negotiations in Selangor have have not been resolved by January 31, the matter would have to be brought to the national-level PH seat negotiation committee.

“We are confident that the PH seat negotiations committee would be able to resolve this on Selangor’s behalf,” he added.

DAP, Bersatu and Amanah contend that a proper committee to handle seat negotiations at state level should be formed by PH Selangor, which is chaired by state menteri besar Mohamed Azmin Ali, who is also PH deputy president and elections director.

Selangor Amanah communications director Jamzuri Ardani had told The Malaysian Insight that his party had sent a letter to Azmin, asking that the special committee be set up immediately to discuss seat allocations, but had yet to receive a reply.

Zuraida today responded to Jamzuri’s claim, saying that he was wrong and that Azmin had already chaired two meetings of the state PH elections committee. She said Azmin’s commitment to the pact should not be questioned.

“For the record, we have had two meetings chaired by him. It is also widely known that Selangor’s efforts in protesting against the Election Commission’s redelineation proposal has produced results and prevented the attempts to redelineate 18 parliamentary seats.”

“I would like to correct the allegations by Jamzuri Ardani that there was no committee formed for seat negotiations by Selangor PH.

“It also is not correct when the allegations claim that there are secret negotiations between Selangor PKR and PAS in forming a pact in Selangor,” she said.

Jamzuri said Zuraida was mistaken shortly after her statement was issued.

“PKR has been talking about seat negotiations in the elections bureau meetings… that is the wrong platform. The other parties understand this, but PKR doesn’t seem to understand,” he told The Malaysian Insight today.

PKR and PAS each have 13 state seats, while DAP has 14 and Amanah, two.

BN has 12, and the remaining two state seats in Selangor are held by independents.

PKR is expected to contest up to 30 seats in Selangor in the 14th general election, as previously announced following a state PH meeting. In the previous election in 2013, the party only contested 20 out of the total of 56 state seats.

DAP is expected to stick to the 15 seats it contested the last time, while the 20 previously contested by PAS would be split between new allies Bersatu and Amanah.

It has also been proposed that Bersatu take on some seats that PKR had failed to win in GE13. – January 26, 2018.