He told FMT that PH stood to suffer more than PSB from the breakdown in seat negotiations because Sarawakians were disappointed with the coalition for its failure to fulfil many of its promises when it was in power.

He also said some in PSB felt that teaming up with PH would have adversely affected its image as a local party. “Had we struck a deal with PH, we would be considered as being the same as GPS, which is working with Umno and PAS.”

Loh acknowledged the possibility that the failure of the talks would affect PSB’s chances in “a few” contests for urban, Chinese-majority seats, but said: “This can be seen only on polling day.”

Asked why PSB was contesting in only 70 of the 82 seats up for grabs, he said the party was fielding only winnable candidates.

“We did a search and tried to find as many winnable candidates as possible. We did not want to field candidates for the sake of doing so. If you look at PH’s example in the past, it fielded candidates everywhere and many lost their deposits.

“It’s not about losing the deposit but what it does to the party’s image. So, we assessed every seat and the possible candidates before deciding,” he said.

Loh said PSB was aiming to win at least 40 seats to enable it to form the government.