The state opposition in Sabah would have won another four parliamentary seats and eight state assembly seats if not for the votes in the 13th general election being split, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang says.

It these winnings had come in hand, the state opposition would have seven parliamentary seats out of 20 in Sabah (up from three seats) and 20 out of the 60 state assembly seats (up from 12 seats).

If all the opposition parties in Sabah were united, the winnings would have been even greater, Lim said in a statement today said, with at least 11 parliamentary seats and 26 state seats.

"For Sabah, a lively and strong opposition presence has now been restored to the state assembly after an absence of two decades, with 11 assemblypersons from Pakatan Rakyat and one from the State Reform Party (Star).

"However, the May 5 general election was an expensive lesson for the opposition in Sabah," Lim added, pointing to the missed opportunity for greater gains in the state.

'Sabah no longer a BN fixed deposit'

On the other hand, he pointed out that although Pakatan failed to achieve its goal of capturing at least a third of the parliamentary seats in Sabah, its gains in GE13 meant that Sabah could no longer be considered a BN ‘fixed deposit'.

For the next general election, he said, the coalition's challenge would be to capture both the state and the federal governments, and for this the DAP parliamentarian urged opposition supporters to start the groundwork immediately.

To help achieve this, he said, DAP was targeting 13 state assembly seats in addition to the four it already holds, and encouraged other DAP MPs and assemblypersons to ‘adopt' these 13 seats.

The 13 are Elopura, Karamunting, Tanjong Papat, Tanjong Aru, Karanaan, Paginatan, Tanjong Kapor, Melalap, Kemabong, Liawan, Sook, Tambunan and Merotai.

NONE All of these, except for Tanjong Aru and Merotai, are seats that Lim believes the opposition would have won in GE13, if it it had been united.

"The Sabah DAP state committee, together with the party's central executive committee coordinator for Sabah and Sarawak, Teresa Kok ( right ), will work out the details of these ‘adoption' programmes, which can have more than one DAP elected representative adopting each of the 13 constituencies," he said.

Lim also announced that he would be ‘adopting' Karanaan, which he had visited yesterday in conjunction with the state's Harvest Festival celebration.