Rafizi denies misunderstanding with Anwar

JOHOR BAHRU - PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli denies that there is no understanding between him and the party’s president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, following their purported contradictory statements.

The Johor state leadership council (MPN) chairman said the claim made by Barisan Nasional treasurer-general Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein was untrue when the latter referred to the difference in the number of seats that could be won by Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the 15th General Election (GE15).

Instead, Rafizi remained consistent with his previous statement that PH was in a good position and able to win 80 parliamentary seats and above.

"This is based on the party's position that we can win 80 seats, if we work stronger and get closer to the people, we can win up to 100 seats.

"So, it is true that Anwar said we can win 100 seats. There is no issue of misunderstanding between us as what was said by Hishammuddin.

"I want to tell Hishammuddin that if PH won 80 seats or 100 seats, the number of seats that PH will win will be more than BN," he told reporters after meeting the community in Taman Ehsan Jaya, here on Tuesday.

Also present was PH candidate for the Tebrau parliamentary seat, Jimmy Puah Wee Tse who is also Johor PKR vice-president.

On Monday, Hishammuddin claimed that Rafizi and Anwar had no understanding when there was a difference in expectations between the two politicians regarding the number of seats PH could win in GE15.

Rafizi further commented that the 100-seat target could be achieved if the party machinery campaigned better and approached as many voters as possible to deliver PH’s plan to the people within the next two weeks.

Based on his analysis, he said, in the current situation, there is no sign that a political coalition will win big in this election and form a government.

"If PH wins 80 seats, we will have to do a little negotiation with parties in Sabah and Sarawak to form a government. If we win bigger, the chances are high to form a stronger government.

"If we win 100 seats, we will become more stable and the state of Johor will be the most important because it offers the most seats in the peninsula," he said.