Sabah PH deputy chairman Stephen Wong said, however, the party which is led by Shafie Apdal must compromise and let PH contest in 60% of the 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah.

“I think this is the best we can offer Warisan. This is what we propose. It shows that Pakatan is flexible because we are ready for change. We want to let the local parties lead the state while we lead the national side and I think 60% which is equivalent to 36 seats out of 60, is very high,” he said.

Wong who is also Sabah DAP chairman is positive the proposal will be agreeable to Warisan. He revealed that an informal meeting between Sabah PH leaders and Shafie had taken place yesterday but that both parties had failed to reach a consensus.

Nevertheless, Wong said, it was only a preliminary talk and he believed things would be smoothened out after a few meetings.

Sources within the parties have revealed that both sides could not agree on seat distribution especially because PH parties – DAP, PKR and Amanah – wanted to keep the seats they had won in the last election but Warisan was staking a claim to some of those seats.

Earlier, PH deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin had said that the Sabah PH had until the end of this month to finalise its candidates.

He also told Sabah PH leaders to accommodate local opposition parties, especially Warisan.

“This is the reason why we must hurry up with the negotiation. We are hoping to wrap this up so we can move on and start working together,” said Wong.

Asked whether it would affect Sabah DAP’s intention to contest in the interior of Sabah, Wong said that issue was minor compared with the issue at hand – which is to strike a formal cooperation with local opposition parties.

“This proposed coalition is open to everyone, all opposition parties in Sabah which share the same goals as Pakatan Harapan,” he said without mentioning the other local coalition Gabungan Sabah.