KOTA KINABALU, March 28 ― Sabah’s Opposition force is one step closer to ensuring straight fights against Barisan Nasional (BN) as national and local parties Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Parti Warisan Sabah come closer to completing negotiations.

DAP secretary Chan Foong Hin said that the two parties have met up at least six times to have talks since Chinese New Year and they are nearing a consensus.

"From what I understand, negotiations are going positively and we are coming close to sealing the deal. We are optimistic that we will reach a consensus that both sides are happy with,” he said.

Declining to elaborate on the seat ratio or the number of seats allocated to each party, Chan said that the direction of negotiations has given them reason to focus on a certain areas and there is certainty that DAP will penetrate at least one seat in the interior of Sabah.

"It still needs some time as there are other partners to consider, but I am positive we will come to an agreement soon, and there will be an announcement,” he said when speaking at a press conference here today.

The pact between Warisan and PH will mean fewer opportunity of clashes between in Opposition in certain seats. Both have indicated interest in working with each other since last year, but relations have been marred by several public rows.

In the last election, split votes was largely the reason why the ruling BN took away many marginal seats, particularly in native non-Muslim (known by the acronym KDM for Kadazandusun Murut) majority areas.

But even if PH and Warisan come to an agreement not to contest each other, there are at least two more Opposition pacts in play that could split votes in the key areas.

The United Sabah Alliance or Gabungan Sabah are a link of four local parties who have two state seats between them ― Parti Solidariti Sabah Tanah Airku (Sabah STAR) president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan has the Bingkor seat and Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah’s Datuk Lajim Ukin has Klias.

Parti Cinta Sabah and Parti Kerjasama Anak Negeri (Anak Negeri) have also recently joined forces to take on seats in KDM areas.

The former is likely to go into the election alone with strong Sabahan nationalist sentiments while the latter has claimed to want to work with other parties namely Warisan and DAP respectively, but talks have yet to come to fruition.

"It is clear there will be no deal between Gabungan and Pakatan, but there is still leeway with the other pact. It is messy though, due to the fundamental differences between the parties and also relations between the people in the party.

"In the end, we may need just the leaders to come to an understanding,” said Chan.

"It is imperative that we come to an agreement this GE14. We cannot miss this boat to topple the BN government,” he said.