PM Need Not Campaign, BN Confident Of Victory

ALOR GAJAH, April 9 (Bernama) -- Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi need not come down to campaign in the by-election for the Machap state seat on Thursday as the people are confident of the prime minister's leadership.
Najib said it was the policy of the Barisan Nasional (BN) that the prime minister need not campaign in by-elections as the rakyat were already convinced by the policies announced such as the national mission, the Ninth Malaysia Plan and so on.
"For the (by-election for) Batu Talam constituency recently, there was no necessity for the prime minister to come down and campaign, we won handsomely and our challenger lost his deposit. It's due to the strong confidence placed on the government led by the prime minister. There was no need for him to come down personally," he told reporters at a gathering with the deputy prime minister at Felda Tun Ghafar Hutan Percha, near here Monday.
Najib, who is also the BN deputy chairman, was commenting on the claim by the DAP that for as long as the prime minister did not come down to campaign, the DAP candidate would not lose his deposit.
As the campaign period for the Machap by-election entered its last two days, the DAP today intensified the " psychology war" by saying its candidate would lose its deposit if the prime minister turned up to campaign for the BN.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng claimed that after seven days of campaigning, the BN election machinery headed by Najib and Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam "did not have effective issues" to ensure BN could win with a bigger majority.
In the by-election, BN candidate Lai Meng Chong, a local, is being challenged by the DAP's Liou Chen Kuang, 33, in a straight fight.
The Machap state seat fell vacant following the death of the Assemblyman, Datuk Wira Poh Ah Tiam, who was also the State Exco for Housing, Local Government, Environment and Transport, on March 15.
Najib said the BN should not be drawn into the ploy of the DAP which was merely testing or provoking the BN.
"It's up to all of us to work hard to ensure a big win for the BN," he said.
Asked whether the defection of the 700 DAP supporters to join the MCA in Johor two days ago would contribute to BN's victory in the by-election, Najib said the BN was certainly confident of winning.
"I see that they (the DAP) have no local issue to raise, all the people's problems have been attended to by the state or federal government," he said.
He said when the rakyat were satisfied, there was no reason for them to be angry or to think of looking for an alternative unless they purposely wanted to vote for the opposition.
On the DAP campaign which was being supported by the Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Najib said the cooperation was nothing new and yet the BN had won handsomely in the 2004 general election.
"So there's no problem even in this by-election. If there's any cooperation (between them), we will work hard. We have our own strategy and we will continue with what we have been doing all this while," he said.
Earlier in his speech at the gathering, Najib reminded voters in the Machap state constituency to exercise their constitutional right wisely by voting the candidate who was capable of championing their cause and ensure a better future for them.
He said the BN had been proven to be a "powerful weapon" that could be used to improve the people's livelihood.
At the gathering, the deputy prime minister announced an allocation of RM3.7 million for the Felda Tun Ghafar Baba Hutan Percha, of which RM3 million would be to upgrade the water pipes, RM600,000 for the construction of a multipurpose hall and RM100,000 to repair the mosque.

tunku : pm need not campaign because the SIL is there to campaign for him and furthermore najib said that the people are confident of the prime minister's leadership.so why campaigning too hard with millions spent on this by election if the people already confident with the pm leadership? i guess if pm comes down bn will win with SMALLER MAJORITY.anyway he need not to come to machap as he is fostering ties with golfing nowadays and need more and more of sleep to lead us.