Snap secretary-general Stanley Jugol Sandin said his party subscribed to the common opposition goal of ousting BN from power in Sarawak.

Edmund-Stanley-Jugol He stressed that this could only happen if there was full cooperation among the Pakatan component parties after attending a meeting of the Sarawak Pakatan council.

The Sarawak Pakatan council comprises top leaders from four component parties - PKR, DAP, PAS and Snap.

“Arising out of today’s discussions, I see that there is no problem among the component parties,” he said.

Jugol said he did not think that the haggling over their overlapping claims for seats to contest in the upcoming state elections was a big problem so long as each component party had a “give and take” attitude.

Jugol said Pakatan had not thought of having a Plan B for the coming polls in case Snap and PKR were not able to iron out their overlapping claims.

According to the Snap leader, he did not know which seats were both claimed by Snap and PKR as he did not seen PKR’s list yet.

“We also have yet to show our list to them,” he said, repeating that Snap was aiming to contest in 28 seats, while the PKR wanted to contest in 52 seats.

snap pc kuching 050311 edwin dundang He said the threat to withdraw from Pakatan as stated by Snap president Edwin Dundang ( left in photo ) yesterday was a reaction to a news report quoting PKR deputy president Azmin Ali as saying that PKR was offering Snap only three seats to contest.

“If we want unseat the BN from power, yes, Snap will swim and sink with Pakatan. That is the only formula we have,” he asserted.

He said he did not think that the negotiations would go sour over the overlapping claims.

“We want this negotiation to work out, and there is no question of not agreeable once decisions have been made,” he said.

PAS set eyes on six Malay/Melanau seats

Jugol agreed that the seats would be given to a party which had a better chance of winning.

“It is based on a winnable party principle,” he added, stating that evidence had to be procured to justify claims to the seats.

On the selection of Snap candidates, he said the party had ample time to scrutinise their backgrounds before making a decision to pick them as candidates.

He said it was not possible to ask them to sign a letter of undertakings that they would not jump over to the BN after winning in the elections.

"This letter of undertakings is not recognised by the court as it cannot be legally enforced on the candidates," he added.

azlan Meanwhile, Sarawak PAS commissioner Adam Ahid believed that Pakatan would face the BN in straight fights in all 71 seats, considering that the discussions at the Pakatan council meeting was encouraging and cordial.

He said although the decisions on the seat allocations had not been finalised, PAS would abide by whatever was decided by the Pakatan leadership.

Adam said out of 71 seats in the Sarawak state assembly, PAS was interested to contest in six mostly Malay/Melanau majority areas.

They are Tupong, Sadong Jaya, Sebuyau, Beting Maro, Jepak and Senadin.

“We are discussing with PKR on these seats. If PKR thinks that they can win in Tupong or Sadong Jaya, we will give in to them. But we think that we can win, I am sure they will allow us to take the seats,” he said.