GEORGE TOWN, July 28 — Pakatan Harapan may lose more seats to Barisan Nasional (BN) if Penang holds snap polls now, but the situation may not favour their three-party pact in 2018 when its mandate expires either, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.

The DAP leader admitted that Pakatan may not be able to avoid multi-cornered fights if statewide polls were called now, but said there was no guarantee that the federal opposition parties will have one-to-one contests against BN two years from now.

"Yes, we all run the risk of losing seats to the machinations of BN. However, we must have faith in Penangites.

"We must not lose faith in the people’s innate goodness to choose right over wrong, good over evil and a clean government over a corrupt government," he said in an open letter to all Malaysians.

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He believed that Pakatan should leverage on the people’s emotions now, as many were upset over the current economic situation with the depreciation in the ringgit, the imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST), loss of business and the difficulty of finding high-income employment.

He told Pakatan to have faith in the people to rise to the occasion to save the country from BN.

The DAP secretary-general reiterated that calling for state elections this year is not to save him from the two corruption charges he is facing, but to enable Penangites to endorse the clean Pakatan government.

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"It is about protecting and preserving the positive changes Pakatan has brought to Penang, that is now cleaner, greener, safer and health," he said.

Lim also repeated that DAP will not make an unilateral decision to call for an early general election without full consensus from its allies in Pakatan Harapan.

"Despite being unfairly criticised, we will hold on to keeping our word and display trustworthiness as a basis towards forging a strong coalition," he said.

 PKR has twice said it is unconvinced of DAP's reasons for seeking the early election despite its ally’s insistence in pushing through the elections.

Earlier today, Nurul Izzah told reporters in Kuala Lumpur that an early election in Penang would lead to the possibility of three-cornered fights where no one but Umno wins.

There are 40 state seats in Penang, 19 held by DAP, 10 by PKR, one by PAS and 10 by BN.