After months of bickering, opposition parties Keadilan and DAP have finally reached an understanding on how to discuss the thorny issue of seat allocations for the upcoming general election.

Following their fourth meeting last night, Keadilan expressed satisfaction that its opposition counterpart had agreed to discuss the matter with the respective state leaders in their next meeting.

Previous meetings on the issue failed to yield any positive results.

Keadilan had insisted that discussion over seats start at the state level while DAP wanted the matter to be handled by a national-level mechanism.

In the previous last month, DAP wanted Keadilan to make a formal application to the party about its decision while the latter maintained there was no need for it as the party had made its stand clear during the talks.

Focus on Penang

Keadilan vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar told malaysiakini that he was happy with the outcome of yesterday's two-hour meeting.

He said the session resulted in an agreement that the two parties would meet on July 21 to begin
actual discussion of seats with the presence of state leaders.

He added that the coming meeting will focus on Penang, which is considered a 'hot area' as both parties are believed to be eyeing similar constituencies.

"It was an amicable, happy (fourth) meeting. They understand our position and we understand theirs.

"We hope to sort out things in the next meeting so that we can come to a conclusion about areas and candidates," he said.

The Keadilan leader said representatives of both parties would release a joint statement soon regarding the meeting.

Xavier is leading the party's delegation comprising supreme council member Khalid Jaafar and deputy Youth chief Low Chee Cheong.

DAP national publicity secretary Ronnie Liu is representing his party along with central executive committee member and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok and Youth wing secretary Loke Siew Fook.

Misquoted and misconstrued

Meanwhile, Liu when contacted declined to comment about the meeting.

He said the media should wait for the joint statement by both parties or else information would be "misappropriated and manipulated".

He complained that comments issued by both parties in the past were often misconstrued and
misquoted.

"It is better for both parties to speak in a joint statement so that information cannot be misinterpreted or abused," he said.