(Borneo Post) - The DAP has rubbished the report by Utusan Malaysia that it would be contesting in 90 parliamentary seats, thus ensuring the party would have the final say in the appointment of the prime minister should Pakatan Rakyat (Pakatan) win the 13th general election.

State DAP chairman Wong Ho Leng said Pakatan had agreed that should they capture Putrajaya in this coming general election, PKR de-facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would be the next prime minister.

“The DAP will have the least number of seats out of the 222 parliamentary seats.

“This is based on the election boundary dynamics where the Malays have the most seats,” Wong told The Borneo Post here yesterday.

He added that negotiations on seat allocation among the three Pakatan component parties, namely PKR, PAS and DAP, were still on-going.

“What Utusan Malaysia had reported was only to create fear among the Malays,” said Wong, who is also Sibu MP and Bukit Assek assemblyman.

Utusan Malaysia had based its report on a posting in suarapakatanrakyat.com, a blog that is purported to be ‘pro-opposition’.

It claimed to reveal the outcome of a seat allocation meeting among the three opposition parties.

Citing the blog, Utusan Malaysia said PAS would contest only 66 seats although its president Abdul Hadi Awang wanted 80 seats, while PKR would reduce its seats to 66, compared to 97 in the 2008 general election. This would allow the DAP an additional 43 seats, and place the party in the best position to appoint its leader as prime minister if Pakatan won at the federal level, said the report.

“Moreover, with the split of Malay votes into three parts, DAP can easily win in parliamentary constituencies which have an equal number of Malays and non-Malays,” it said, quoting the blog.

To back the claim, Utusan Malaysia said the information was supported by two other blogs, namely www.mykmu.net and www.pisau.net
Meanwhile, Wong said the state DAP was eyeing between 12 and 14 seats out of the 31 up for grabs.

The DAP has two parliamentary seats in the state, the other being Bandar Kuching.