The Selangor Pakatan Harapan seat allocation talks might go more smoothly once all members agree on a set of principles to negotiate, as was done with seat negotiations at the federal level, PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli said.

“It is not uncommon that seat negotiations start with a lot of complications.

“Once the negotiators can agree on a set of principles, then it becomes quite easy because all the allocations will fall in line with the principles.

“That’s exactly what we did (at the federal level). We agreed on a set of principles and then you evaluate seat by seat against all these principles,” Rafizi told Malaysiakini in an interview last week.

He was commenting on the much-publicised issues surrounding the Selangor Harapan seat negotiations, such as the initial confusion over which committee was mandated to discuss seats allocation, the public spat between PKR and Amanah on seat negotiations and Bersatu declining to recognise the outcome of the ongoing negotiations.

Rafizi said Harapan seat negotiators at the federal level followed several principles, including that incumbent seats should be left as they are, the “winnability” factor, fair representation and several other considerations.

“Of course, the crux of the matter is that people feel like 'can I have a little bit more of that good pie',” he noted.

He also pointed out that Harapan in Selangor had started its seat negotiations much later than the parties in the other states.

Sincerity known

This is most likely because there wasn't a sense of urgency for seat discussion in Selangor, where 31 seats already belong to incumbent Harapan politicians, he said.

“So there are only about 25 seats to be negotiated, which is a lot simpler compared to, for example, Johor, where everyone is basically starting from scratch,” Rafizi explained.

Usually, once state seat negotiations go far enough, there will be four to five unresolved seats, which will be pushed to the federal level to be resolved.

Selangor Harapan has not yet reached that stage since they started their seat negotiations late, he said.

Citing the Harapan federal seat negotiations as an example again, Rafizi said as long as the principles agreed upon are followed in good faith, then the issues in Selangor could be resolved.

“After about three months of negotiating with the team, we all know one another. We know the sincerity of everybody, we know there are no tricks.

“If you reflect that on Selangor, the sooner they re-start the negotiations, the better. The more people understand and try to become friends with one another, I think the easier the negotiations will become.

“You know, go for a drink (together). It helps,” Rafizi said.

It was reported on Monday that Selangor Harapan still has about 15 to 20 seats which have not been finalised and that the four component parties would meet again after the Chinese New Year celebrations.

This interview was conducted by Geraldine Tong, Annabelle Lee and Adrian Wong.