ALOR SETAR, April 11- The DAP is prepared to go for three-cornered fights in Kedah if the additional seats it is asking for is not given to it, said its deputy chairman Tan Kok Wei(pic). He said they had asked its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) partner Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to allow the DAP to contest the parliamentary seat of Alor Setar and the state seats of Bakar Bata and Bakar Arang.
The DAP only held one state seat in Kedah before the state assembly was dissolved to make way for the 13th General Election.
“I hope this (three-cornered fights) will not happen. We asked for Alor Setar because our candidate, being a local, is more suitable,” he told a press conference here today.
The DAP has been up in arms after opposition chief and PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced its Kedah legal bureau chief Gooi Hsio Leong as the candidate for Alor Setar. In the last general election in 2008, PR (made up of PKR, DAP and PAS) had unseated the Barisan Nasional (BN) in Kedah after winning 21 of the 36 seats at stake. The BN won 14 seats while the other seat went to an independent.
As for parliamentary seats in Kedah, PR won 11 while the BN four. Tan said besides retaining the Kota Darul Aman state seat, the party also wanted Bakar Bata and Bakar Arang, which were held by PKR, because it felt it had better chances of defending the seats for PR. At the same press conference, Tan also announced that PR had agreed to Perlis DAP chairman Teh Seng Chuan, 41, and state DAP secretary Wong Boon Beng, 48, contesting the Titi Tinggi and Indera Kayangan state seats respectively.
BERNAMA
