From:
Date: 22 Nov 1999
Time: 02:52:20
Keadilan 'contesting 64 seats'
PETALING JAYA: Parti Keadilan Nasional is contesting the most number of parliamentary seats in the elections, the Barisan Alternatif said yesterday. Keadilan deputy president Dr Chandra Muzaffar confirmed that the party was contesting 64 parliamentary seats.
He said the figures released may show some discrepancies because some Keadilan candidates were contesting under a different party banner as agreed by the four parties in the Alternative Front.
Citing an example, he said the Keadilan candidate in Setiu was using the PAS banner while its candidates in Teluk Kemang and Taiping were contesting under the DAP logo.
He also said a PAS candidate was standing under the Keadilan banner in Perlis.
"Seats which are won by a candidate, regardless of the banner used, will belong to the party he is from," he said.
On Friday, the opposition front leaders announced that Keadilan would contest 64 seats, followed by PAS (61), DAP (47) and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (five).
However, newspapers yesterday published figures given by the Election Commission after tabulating the number of candidates contesting in the election, showing PAS with the most number of seats with 62, followed by Keadilan (60), DAP (44) and PRM (four).
Barisan Alternatif media co-ordinator Raja Petra Kamaruddin said the opposition front would release today a detailed breakdown of the number of state and parliamentary seats each party in the front was contesting.
Raja Petra said the Keadilan candidate who was to have contested the Hulu Rajang parliamentary seat in Sarawak could not file his nomination papers on Saturday because the party's letter of authorisation did not reach him in time.
The seat is now being contested by Barisan Nasional's Billy Abit Joo and Kumbong Langit, an independent.