KLANG, Jan 18 — DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke has today clarified the party’s stand on retaining incumbent seats in Selangor.
He said that is the party’s decision to continue contesting in the seats that they have won in the last election.
“That’s our decision to continue contesting, we cannot stop other parties from contesting, but other parties should not stop us from contesting as well.
“In any cooperation, there must be a principle. The principle should be according to incumbent seats, if there is political cooperation that’s the base principle.
“If we work together as one coalition, the division of seats should be based on incumbent seats,” he told reporters after opening the DAP Selangor convention here today.
Loke said if there were statements indicating that Barisan Nasional (BN) had never in the past worked with DAP, those statements did not make sense.
“We had already sacrificed in the previous state election, we gave up one seat that we won previously — Dusun Tua to Umno — that shows our sincerity, but sometimes our sincerity is not received well, they are behaving as though they have never worked with DAP, this, I don’t understand.
“These statements, are statements that don’t make sense, we had worked together to a point that we gave up one seat to Umno, but there are certain parties claiming that they never worked with DAP, we were honest with our voters that we are working with Umno, so don’t lie to yourself and don’t lie to voters,” he said.
When asked about Melaka seats, Loke that this has yet to be determined by either party.
“Melaka, we will discuss this, we still have not decided if we will be working together, BN themselves said they have not decided if they will work with Pakatan Harapan, so that is not determined.
“But what I’m saying is that, the division of seats should be based on political cooperation if any, but if there isn’t then it’s free for all,” he said.
