Pakatan expects to bag 11 MPs in Sabah
Sabah Pakatan Rakyat is confident of winning at least 11 parliamentary seats in Sabah despite facing multi-corner fights in many seats.
Sabah Pakatan Rakyat is confident of winning at least 11 parliamentary seats in Sabah despite facing multi-corner fights in many seats.
According to Sabah DAP chief Jimmy Wong, Pakatan is confident of defending Kota Kinabalu, Tuaran and Beaufort.
Kota Kinabalu was won by DAP's Hiew King Cheu in 2008, while Tuaran and Beaufort was won by Wilfred Bumburing and Lajim Ukin respectively. 
Bumburing (right) and Lajim won the seats as BN candidates but have since became Pakatan Rakyat affiliates.
The other eight seats targetted by Pakatan are: Sandakan, Putatan, Sepanggar, Tawau, Kota Marudu, Tenom, Keningau and Penampang.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who is in Kota Kinabalu today, said this is in line with the coalition's national strategy to win 10 extra parliamentary seats each from the states of Sabah, Sarawak and Johor respectively to get simple majority in Parliament to form the federal government.
If Wong's prediction is right, a Pakatan win in the 11 parliamentary seats will see the toppling of three Sabah BN component chief - VK Liew (LDP, Sandakan), Bernard Dompok (Upko, Penampang), Joseph Pairin Kitingan (PBS, Keningau) and Maximus Ongkili (PBS, Kota Marudu).
"I think we are hopeful in at least 15 parliamentary seats, the possibility is there," he said at the Kota Kinabalu DAP headquarters.
Dismissing the effect of the multi-corner fights with SAPP and Star in most of these seats, he said: "The fight is really between Pakatan and BN."
Barring Sandakan, most of these areas are located on the west coast of Sabah, with Keningau and Tenom being more interior.
Despite Pakatan's optimism, 2008 election results indicate uphill battles for PKR's Keningau and Tenom candidates Stephen Sandor and Masdin Tumas.
Keningau remains the battleground for the Kitingan brothers with elder Pairin having beaten Jeffrey with a solid 4,624 votes previously, while BN incumbent Tenom man Raime Unggi slew his opponents by a majority of close to 7,000 votes.
Tuaran is tenuous, with PKR's branch there openly revolting by backing Independent candidate Erveanna Ansari against Bumburing.
20 state seats targeted
At state level, the DAP believes that Pakatan parties and its new allies - the Lajim-led PPPS and Bumburing-led APS - can see it win at least a third of the 60 seats contested.
"We are hopeful we can win the state seats under those parliamentary seats but we also know there is 'double-voting' where people vote differently at parliamentary and state level," Lim said.
Wong (left) claimed that Lajim is confident of PPPS contributing 10 state seats to Pakatan.
"But if we get Putrajaya (a change in federal government) we'll get the state, too, because all the BN assemblypersons will want to switch," Wong said, before Lim interjected by saying that this is premature.
Lim also read out a list of 10 pledges by DAP to Sabahans.
They include total eradication of poverty within five years, the Kudat-Kuching Pan Borneo Highway, a non-Muslim affairs state ministerial portfolio, free wifi in public places, doubling the number of police personnel and giving the state jurisdiction over public transport, including issuing taxi licences.
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