KUALA LUMPUR – A stalemate over the Sg Siput parliamentary seat was the leading factor behind Pakatan Harapan (PH) dropping its electoral pact with Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).
PKR vice-president Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said PSM insisted on fielding its chairman Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj in Sg Siput, which was won by PKR’s Kesavan Subramaniam in 2018.
“The main principle of (seat) negotiations between PH component parties and allies is not to take incumbent seats, unless there is an agreement to swap seats,” Nik Nazmi told The Vibes.
“We (PH) recognise that we share (a) similar political outlook and struggles with PSM and I think both sides can recognise that we have tried to accommodate each other in the past. But Sg Siput is a no-go for us.”
Nik Nazmi, who represents PKR in the PH seat negotiation committee in discussions with PSM and Muda, also disputed PSM’s claims that it was not picky with seat allocations.
“There were secondary talks of other seats, but PSM basically indicated that most of its demands rested on the Sg Siput federal constituency.
“It was not made clear that they would be okay with fielding candidates in other seats besides Sg Siput,” he said, adding that the coalition had encountered a similar roadblock with Muda when the party had requested to contest in a seat held by an incumbent MP.
“Muda made claims for one of our incumbent seats, but we told them that it was off-limits, and they agreed.
“We extended the same courtesy to PSM, but they indicated that as far as they’re concerned, their priority lies with Sg Siput, which obviously goes against the ‘no incumbent seats’ clause.
“They gave their case, we gave our case and eventually we reached a deadlock.”
In the 2018 general election, Kesavan won Sg Siput with 20,817 votes while Jeyakumar only garnered 1,505 votes.
However, Jeyakumar had previously defended the constituency for two terms while running under the PKR ticket, beating out independent and MIC candidates.
Meanwhile, PKR communications chief Fahmi Fadzil said that while cooperation with PSM is “not something entirely workable” at this point in time, “synergy” could possibly be achieved later.
“We must have some points of understanding (to form an electoral pact). We managed to reach these points with Muda, (but) perhaps not at this time with PSM.
“We’re not saying never (to political cooperation) perhaps sometime in the future (instead),” he told The Vibes.
It was reported yesterday that PH rejected an electoral pact with PSM, six days before nomination day on November 5. – The Vibes, October 31, 2022
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