Sarawak DAP is finally meeting their PKR counterparts in the presence of their leaders in Kuala Lumpur on Monday to resolve the seat issue after refusing a face-to-face meeting recently.

State PKR liaison committee chief Dominique Ng, said he received a telephone call from the party's de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim yesterday requesting him to attend a meeting between PKR and DAP leaders to discuss the seven Chinese-majority parliamentary seats between the two parties.

Meanwhile, state DAP chairperson Richard Wong Ho Leng - who is also Bukit Assek state assemblyperson - has publicly stated that his party would be fielding candidates for all the seven seats.

However, PKR intends to contest in those seats which includes Stampin, Sarikei and Miri.

According to Padungan state assemblyperson Ng, he has written letters calling for talks at the state level but received no response from DAP.

Last week, Anwar told reporters in Kuching that his party had agreed that DAP should contest in the ‘traditional’ opposition seats without explaining further but indicated that PKR should also be given Chinese-majority seats, since it also has Chinese members.

Ng's Padungan state constituency is a predominantly-Chinese seat right in the heart of Kuching City.

Padungan is one of two state constituencies that make up the Bandar Kuching parliamentary seat which is presently held by state DAP secretary Chong Chieng Jen, who is also the Kota Sentosa state assemblyperson.

The difficulty for the state leaders in both opposition parties to reach some understanding on the seats largely stems from the fact that Ng and some of his colleagues were previously in DAP.

Ng told Malaysiakini that he is confident the Monday meeting will resolve problems with the Stampin parliamentary seat, presently held by Sarawak United People's Party’s Yong Khoon Seng.

Deadlock over Stampin and Miri

While DAP has proposed lawyer and Batu Lintang state assemblyperson Voon Lee Shan to contest in Stampin, PKR wants Stampin branch chairperson See Chee How to run instead.

Observers say See, who is a well-known native customary land rights lawyer and social activist, probably stands a better chance for the Opposition to take on Stampin incumbent Yong.

Also, PKR is keen to field medical practitioner Dr Michael Teo to contest in Miri against BN-Supp's Peter Chin, the minister of commodities and plantation industries.

The seat currently has a higher content of Chinese electorate following the delineation of the electoral boundaries with Bumiputera voters transferred to a new parliamentary constituency called Sibuti.

PKR insists that they will be contesting in both Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera constituencies.

Sarawak will only be holding parliamentary elections during general elections because state elections are held separately.

DAP will largely be contesting in Chinese seats, with possibly a token one or two Bumiputera candidates in Bumiputra-majority seats.

Both DAP and PKR could not reach a consensus on their seats allocation for the coming general election as the ‘deadline’ for talks expired on Thursday.

The deadlock of seats allocation in Perak, especially over the 11 parliamentary and state seats in the Kinta Valley, remained the major obstacle and it has delayed talks in other states.

Political pundits have since predicted the general election to be held in early March - March 8 or 9 being possible dates - although the government’s mandate is not due until March 2009.