Sarawak PKR's sole state assemblyperson Dominique Ng has been appointed the new state liaison committee chief of the party.

His appointment, effective July 10, was made by party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Ng took over from Wan Zainal Wan Senusi, an accountant and a founder member of Sarawak PKR.

In Sabah, a new state liaison chief has also been appointed with the recent announcement that veteran politician Ansari Abdullah is now at its helm, taking over from Awang Tengah, a former state director of forests.

The changes to the two state posts were decided at the national PKR committee meeting in Kuala Lumpur to prepare the party for the forthcoming elections.

According to reports, the decision to replace Awang Tengah did not go down very well with some of the divisions in Sabah, with the local media suggesting a leadership crisis was brewing, but this had been denied by the state PKR deputy chief Christina Liew.

In Sarawak, however, the change had been well accepted. According to state PKR Stampin division chief See Chee How, Wan Zainal had in fact wanted Ng to head the state liaison committee after the state elections in May last year.

Form more divisions

Ng told Malaysiakini today that "we are looking for the most suitable role for Wan Zainal because of his experience and contributions to the party," adding that Zainal still has a useful role to play in Sarawak PKR.

Ng said another important task for him was to expand the party base and he hoped the party would be able to set up divisions in all the state's 31 parliamentary constituencies in five years time. Presently, the party has 12 divisions.

The party will also be working on strengthening co-operation with the Sarawak National Party (Snap) and the yet-to-be-registered Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC). PKR is keen to contest 15 out of the 31 parliamentary seats in the next elections.

On electoral understanding with DAP, Ng said: "I don't believe it is impossible to reach some form of cooperation."

As shown in the last state elections, it would be mutually beneficial for the two parties to work together, he added.

State DAP leaders have insisted that so long as PKR has a pact with the Islamic-based opposition party PAS, it would be difficult to forge any electoral understanding with PKR.