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Redistribution of seats doable

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Dr Arnold Puyok.

KUCHING: A redistribution of seats in line with a party’s winnability in the areas for the upcoming state election is doable provided a mechanism and formula is agreed upon by component parties within the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition, said Universiti Malaysia Sarawak deputy dean Arnold Puyok.

He suggested that an internal audit must be done by an independent entity in order to assess the strength of each party, for example, through SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunity and threat) analysis.

He said through such internal audit would allow each of the component party to indicate the visibility of the candidates in a particular province.

“Each of the party requires to have strong data to back up their claim that their candidates are more popular and have more chances of winning,” he said when asked to comment on Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing’s suggestion for ‘seat-swapping’ to ensure the coalition nominates the best candidates.

He added that through the data, they must come up with a formula to ensure that they were able to win the votes.

Taking Parti Warisan Sabah as an example, Puyok said, each of the component party also must understand the history of the political landscape at a particular province before nominating the candidates.

“For Parti Warisan Sabah, the formula was the ethnicity of the province where they could gain more voters to support them.

“Thus, it is vital for each of the component party of GPS to really understand the situation and preferences of the voters in a particular area,” he said.