KUCHING, Nov 30 — The United People’s Party (UPP) abandoned hopes of reconciliation with bitter rival Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) today, one day before the deadline set by Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem for them to do so.

UPP president Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh who announced this today also blamed the rival party for the failure, citing a resolution adopted at a recent SUPP annual general meeting to ban any negotiation over seats with UPP.

“Any SUPP leader, including the president himself, will be referred to the disciplinary committee if they come and meet with us,” he said.

“It looks like there is no hope for us to reconcile, ahead of the state polls next year.”

The state minister of local government and community development said he has already informed Adenan on the “deafening” silence from SUPP to his reconciliation initiative, alleging that SUPP president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian did not respond to his two letters requesting a meeting.

“We can conclude that Adenan is very disappointed that his initiative has not succeeded,” he said.

Adenan, in his capacity as chairman of the Sarawak Barisan Nasional, had set December 1 as deadline for the two Chinese-based parties to reconcile and to discuss over seat allocations before he calls the state elections likely before June 20 next year.

Sarawak must hold a state election no later than September 20, 2016.