KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 — The current spat between Selangor PKR and Amanah is merely over an unclear mandate on how state seat negotiations will proceed, according to Jamzuri Ardani.

In a lengthy statement meant to address several issues of contention, the Selangor Amanah communication director said the state election committee headed by PKR Sri Andalas assemblyman Dr Xavier Jeyakumar could not prove it had a mandate to carry out its task.

"He (Xavier) has never proven to have any mandate by consensus of either the Selangor or national PH leadership’s approval to discuss the allocation of seats.

"Without a clear mandate for negotiations, any amount of meetings and discussions will be for nothing as the decision can be challenged later on,” he said.

Jamzuri said Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azmin Ali was wrong in assuming that Amanah’s contention was over the issue of a committee being formed.

"This is not a tussle or grab for seats as some have claimed by certain quarters,” he said.

"We have consulted with our other PH partners and they are also confused over the issue of mandate to discuss the allocation.”

He also said that Selangor Amanah chairman Izham Hashim has denied having disputed Azmin’s leadership as MB and that he had never called him a "joker”.

"He has assured me that he never used the word ‘joker’. Instead Izham was referring to the four meetings and 80 per cent of seats being decided on as lawak (joke). This was mistranslated and reported in the media, he insisted.

Jamzuri also took a swipe at Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin, who had allegedly said he had raised the issue of seat negotiations and the tussle over allocations repeatedly in the media.

"I only spoke on this issue once, when I was asked on the committee to negotiate the division of seats in the state...when i told a reporter that the committee had not been set up.”

The two component parties have been trading barbs over the past week, with the dispute becoming increasingly public and revealing of potential issue for the opposition coalition in Selangor ahead of the 14th general election.