KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa hinted at setbacks in the seat distribution talks among its component members and allies, just hours before the coalition is scheduled to announce its candidates for the Sabah state poll.

The Umno leader posted on Twitter that six parties alone had asked for 120 seats between themselves, when there are just 73 seats in the Sabah state legislative assembly.

"I’m trying to tally...STAR wants 18...PPBM wants 45...PBS wants 30...PAS wants 10...PBRS wants 11...MCA wants 6...that’s 120!!!” Annuar wrote.

"The Sabah [state assembly] only has 73. How many seats can Umno request for, when parties that won just one, two seats want more than ten seats? So we shall negotiate to our best...calmly and without noise,” he added, but did not elaborate on which parties those were.

In the 2018 general election, STAR had merely won two seats out of the 60 it contested. Bersatu, PAS and MCA all won none.

Sabah Umno chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said Perikatan Nasional, with Barisan Nasional (BN) at its helm, will announce the candidates contesting in the upcoming Sabah state election this Wednesday, Utusan Malaysia reported yesterday.

Bung was also quoted saying that BN was prepared to introduce young and new candidates in the upcoming state poll to ensure its victory.

In a separate report by Berita Harian, sources from both BN and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia said the parties have reached a consensus for the former to contest 30 seats while the latter will get to contest 20 seats.