I told Anwar winning polls more important than party’s dignity - Shafie
SABAH POLLS | Warisan president Shafie Apdal said he informed PKR president Anwar Ibrahim that the main objective is to win the Sabah state election when the pair discussed seat allocations.
"I told Anwar who came to my house... I said I gave many seats last time, but they only won two...
SABAH POLLS | Warisan president Shafie Apdal said he informed PKR president Anwar Ibrahim that the main objective is to win the Sabah state election when the pair discussed seat allocations.
"I told Anwar who came to my house... I said I gave many seats last time, but they only won two.
"This is not the season for us to give seats, this is the season for us to win the election. It is not a question of 'Oh our party will be looked down on if we have a smaller number (of seats)'.
"It is not a party's dignity that is our priority. It is the dignity that we want to win the election that is more important," he said in his speech before announcing the 54 candidates who will be contesting under the Warisan logo in the upcoming state polls at the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) today.
Read more: Sabah Decides 2020: Making sense of the players, parties and battles
The candidate list later appeared to show that PKR only received half the seats it expected.
Sabah PKR announced yesterday it would contest 14 seats, but as Shafie revealed the candidates today, it turned out that the party was only allocated seven seats.
They are Api-Api, Inanam, Tempasuk, Tamparuli, Matunggong, Klias, and Sook.
In the last election, PKR contested eight state seats in Sabah.
Anwar had reportedly visited Shafie’s house last weekend in an attempt to negotiate more seats for PKR.
Shafie also took a jab at PKR in his speech today when he called out the party for not using the Warisan logo.
“DAP and Amanah are willing. Only PKR is unwilling.
“They do not want to use the logo, the number (of seats) is also undecided.
“I have told them that we are in agreement and that is the number we must contest,” he said.
Shafie explained in a press conference later that the seats were decided based on winnability.
“It is not based on the grassroots and the number of members (a party has) but the ability to contribute and win every seat we contest in,” he added.
Despite PKR not getting the number of seats they expected, Shafie hopes that they will continue to uphold their cooperation with Warisan and other allies during the snap polls.
However, he said they are prepared for whatever “consequences” they might face in the election.
Follow Malaysiakini's coverage of the Sabah state election here.
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