Pakatan Harapan will discuss matters relating to seat clashes between Sarawak DAP and PKR and any matters arising after the May 7 state polls have concluded, said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

This is a serious matter that needs to be brought up to the Pakatan Harapan meeting, he stressed.

"On April 7, both PKR deputy president Azmin Ali and I signed an agreement on the seat negotiations.

"He couldn't renege on the agreement, this might seem to others as though (you are) eating your own words," he told Malaysiakini.

"This is a serious matter, you cannot say the negotiation has yet to conclude after you inked the agreement.

"This needs to be dealt with (accordingly) after the state polls," he said firmly.

Azmin has indirectly denied that he had reneged on the agreement between the parties.

The PKR deputy president argued that he had only agreed in principle to surrender eight state seats, including the five that saw the clashes to DAP on April 7, without any firm commitments made or agreement inked.

DAP however argued otherwise.

No consensus on consensus

On April 11, Harapan announced that the allies had arrived at a consensus on seat negotiations.

The decision however did not reportedly go down well with Sarawak PKR, which vetoed the national decision.

Azmin then reportedly authorised state party chief Baru Bian to issue appointment letters to PKR candidates to contest in five seats which was supposedly earmarked for the DAP.

The five seats are Mulu, Murum, Simanggang, Ngemah and Mambong. This has caused the DAP to retaliate by contesting in Batu Kitang.

In his explanation, Azmin said he had obtained the written mandate of party president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail for him to deal with outstanding issues related to the state polls, including the seats and candidates.

Azmin also claimed the seat negotiations had not actually concluded since Harapan did not reveal details related to the seats when it announced the consensus.

DAP however argued the decision was made for the state party chiefs would be the ones to reveal the details.

Top level meet unproductive

Meanwhile, jailed former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has called for both parties to renegotiate and come to an understanding, as there is still time to do so before polls on May 7.

Following this, Wan Azizah met Lim again on Tuesday night and this was said to be the final attempt to stop the clashes.

Lim, however declined to comment on the outcome when contacted by Malaysiakini.

A party insider however said both leaders held a conducive meeting and agreed to set aside the matter for the time being, and to focus instead on the ongoing election campaign.

The source noted that both parties have tried their best but failed to settle the three-cornered fights.

PKR was willing to pull back in Ngemah and Simanggang, in exchange for the DAP backing down from Batu Kitang. PKR also asked for either the Mulu or Murum seat.

However in the end, both leaders failed to reach a consensus and only agreed to set the matter aside.

DAP, however did not hold Wan Azizah responsible for the matter, said the source, claiming that both parties have agreed that the incident would not affect party ties.

'Clashes won't affect Harapan'

Sin Chew Daily reported yesterday that the breakdown in seat negotiations has left Harapan on the verge of collapse.

When asked to comment, Lim denied that the clashes threaten cooperation between the Harapan allies.

"We have no (cooperation) issues in the peninsular. But you see, there are three-cornered fights here in Sarawak," said the Bagan MP.

Lim acknowledged that the three-cornered fights may impact their chance of winning.

"Of course this will impact (the opposition), that's why we need to go campaign in Sarawak.

"But, we need to emphasise here, we need a strong opposition," he said.

When asked the reason why the two parties don't seem to be helping each other to campaign, the chief minister said DAP does not have enough leaders to speak in PKR's ceramah.

Incidentally a significant number of key DAP leaders have been banned from entering Sarawak.

Malaysiakini is attempting to contact both Wan Azizah and Azmin for their comments.