Keadilan is preparing for three-cornered fights in Penang during the general election, if seat-pact talks fail to resolve current differences with former ally DAP.

Keadilan Penang chief Dr Mansor Othman said the party's supreme council meeting, held in Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday, had decided on the number of seats to contest especially in frontline states like Penang, Perak and Selangor.

Mansor, who is also supreme council member, said the party is still hopeful that negotiations with DAP will resume to minimise the number of constituencies where both parties want candidates to stand. The two opposition parties had suspended their talks last August.

"But if we fail (in the negotiations), we are ready to go with three-cornered fights. We hope we will not fail," Mansor told reporters on Saturday at the party's Chinese New Year open house in Lebuh Macallum, a traditional DAP stronghold in Penang

"Our main interest is still to go against the Barisan Nasional (BN) which is why we are still hoping that we will continue to talk."

He said he had met DAP officials informally over the past few months.

Source of dispute

DAP and Keadilan are eyeing eight parliamentary and 24 state seats in Penang, several of which have a predominantly Chinese electorate. In total there are 13 parliamentary and 40 state seats in Penang.

DAP severed ties with the opposition coalition in 2001 because of differences with PAS over the Islamic state issue.

It is adamant about keeping traditional strongholds in Penang, while Keadilan is seeking a chance to prove its mettle in parliamentary seats such as Bukit Gelugor and Batu Kawan as well as new state seat Pantai Jerejak.

Several attempts to find a compromise hit the wall until DAP suspended talks on Aug 5. In a letter to Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the party cited " persistent leaks " of negotiation details to the media as its reason for calling off talks.

In a bid to revive talks, Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua said last December that both parties should set aside their differences and start afresh.

State chief mum

DAP state leaders maintained that they are leaving the negotiations to the national-level team, saying that no official meetings have been held with Keadilan since the suspension of talks.

When contacted, state chairperson Chow Kon You declined to comment on Mansor's statement beyond saying that "my comment will not make things better or worse".

He refused to divulge information about the number of overlapping seats and maintained that negotiations were under national-level supervision.

"I am not sure about the overlapping seats as I am not part of the negotiation team. As long as our national team has not decided, we have no directive to do anything else," he said.

Meanwhile, state Gerakan leader Teng Chang Yeow has criticised the opposition parties' choice of election strategy.

"This is their internal problem, but it seems as if they want the whole world to know," said Teng, who is also Padang Kota Gerakan state assembly representative.

He claimed that support for the opposition in Penang had been waning after the 1999 general election, but added that DAP stood a better chance than Keadilan of winning votes.