KUCHING, July 15 — With three more years to the next Sarawak election, the state DAP has already started making early preparations by identifying 29 seats to be contested by its candidates.

“In this coming state election, we are talking about winning power at the state level and therefore, we should make early preparation,” Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen told reporters tonight after chairing the state liaison committee meeting.

He said it is better to make early preparations as being proved in the last federal election.

“Early preparations helped us to win 10 seats in the 14th general election because it allowed us to identify ourselves with the voters,” he said.

He said the party will identify potential candidates in each of the 29 seats before announcing the final names before the state election.

He also said identifying the potential candidates helped promote healthy competition.

Chong, who is also the Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman, said he does not foresee any problems in the seat allocation with its partners, the state PKR and state Amanah.

He explained that in the 2016 state election, DAP and PKR faced each other in six seats due to a last minute disagreement.

“We believe that this problem can be solved. Our party did better in three of the seats while PKR obtained more votes in the other three seats.

“So, to solve the problem we take three and PKR takes the other three,” he said, adding that he is sure PKR will find this formula acceptable to them.

Apart from that, Chong said there should not be any problem in the seat allocations among the three state PH partners.

He said with the state DAP eyeing 29 seats, PKR should be contesting 40 seats while Amanah, 13 seats.

The Sarawak state assembly has 82 seats.

Chong said if Parti Prebumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) sets its foot before the 2021 state election, it will be to help the state DAP, PKR and Amanah against Gabungan Parti Sarawak, the current ruling alliance in the south Borneo state.

He said he does not believe that PPBM will put up its candidates in the state election.

“They need to set up branches and register their members first,” he said.