PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu is confident that negotiations for the Sungai Acheh seat with PKR will be resolved before nomination day.

NONE Asked if there would definitely be only a two-cornered fight, and not three in the state constituency, the politician popularly known as Mat Sabu ( right ) said, “Yes”.

The central PAS and PKR leadership in Kuala Lumpur are expected to discuss the matter and decide on a solution soon, he added.

“We will be discussing it and the deadline is nomination day, 9am,” he told reporters when met at the Penang DAP headquarters in Jalan Rangoon today.

Asked his personal opinion on the matter, Mat Sabu initially said, “The party is not my own.”

“My personal opinion is that we should discuss and come up with a final decision,” he said later when pressed.

On whether the situation would affect Pakatan Rakyat’s performance in the coming general election, Mat Sabu said he does not think so.

“We have resolved hundreds of them (seats) and only this one is left to discuss,” he said.

DAP won’t intervene

Mat Sabu was referring to the announcements by both state PAS commissioner Salleh Man and state PKR chief Mansor Othman on the Sungai Acheh constituency.

Salleh had announced the party’s state Youth chief Yusni Mat Piah while Mansor has confirmed Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia chief Badrul Hisham Shaharin’s (Chegubard) candidacy there.

NONE Salleh ( left ) was firm about PAS contesting the seat, saying it has been decided by the party’s leadership in Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng earlier told a press conference that the party would not intervene in the seats negotiation between PAS and PKR but expressed hope that there would not be a three-cornered fight.

He added that the DAP will leave the bilateral discussions to the parties’ central leadership in Kuala Lumpur.

“We just heard about it on Tuesday when Mansor announced the candidate for the seat,” he said during the announcement of the Penang Pakatan manifesto, which will be launched at Vistana Hotel at 6pm on Monday.

Asked if Pakatan had ever discussed or agreed on one-to-one fights since it has gone through many elections together in the past, Lim said, “This is a natural conclusion.”

He declined to comment further nor shed light on the leadership squabble between DAP and PKR in Johor, saying, “We are in the presence of the BN media.”

Salleh and Mansor were absent from the press conference today, while other PKR leaders like state vice-presidents Abdul Halim Hussein and Abdul Malik Kassim and state PAS deputy commissioners Takiyuddin Hamzah and Mohd Fauzi Yusoff were there.

'Central leadership to resolve matter'

In an immediate response, Chegubard said his response to PAS’ candidate announcement for Sungai Acheh was “simple”.

“What we are fighting now is the BN regime, our challenge is to strengthen people’s power,” he said in a statement on his blog today.

“I place my total trust in Pakatan’s central leadership to resolve this matter. As I have stressed before, contesting is not my target, and that I am prepared to be an ordinary member of the machinery to ensure a Pakatan win,” he added.

“To all Pakatan election workers and activitists including the people who love change, I guarantee that there will not be a three-cornered fight involving Pakatan in Sungai Acheh,” he stressed.

Chegubard said that Pakatan is in a strong relationship that was born out of the 2008 tsunami, that it had been tested with all sorts of challenges but is matured enough to face GE13 as a coalition that can administer the country in the future.

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