Prepare for polls: Najib

DPM asks BN to be fully prepared to give PM more room to pick best time to dissolve parliament

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has called on all the Barisan Nasional (BN) election machinery throughout the country to intensify preparations to face the 12th general election before the dissolution of Parliament.

“I notice (preparations in) the states that I have visited are satisfactory but there is still time (to make improvement). They must make all preparations so that the Prime Minister will have a lot of room to think of the best time to dissolve Parliament,” the Deputy Prime Minister told reporters after launching the Federal Territory BN Election Machinery here on Saturday night.

He said the directive received currently was to make preparation although the date of the general election would be determined by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Najib, who is also BN deputy chairman, said the BN component parties had also been directed to be prepared and hoped that their machinery at the polling station level were ready to move to look at the ballot boxes and so on.

When asked whether the BN machinery would be able to sustain until the polling day if it were to start early, he believed it would be able to carry out its task. Earlier in his speech, Najib described Parti Keadilan Rakyat or PKR as ‘Parti Kurang Relevan’ (Irrelevant Party) as it was bragging that it wanted to contest everywhere when in actual fact it had won only one parliamentary constituency with a small majority.

He also said that the BN was not championing the cause of the rich only but was looking after the interests of all strata of society regardless of race.

“We have fulfilled our pledges. The BN machinery must tell the people this. This is our commitment,” he said in his speech to about 3,500 members of the Federal Territory BN election machinery at Dataran BN Wilayah here. Najib said the BN also did not want to be a party that won by cheating the people, and this was proven when the BN lost by only two votes in the Kemuning state constituency in Kelantan.

“The BN will also field only candidates of calibre and nobody should go around lobbying for candidacy, even if you book your bush jacket, better do it quietly and don’t start booking posters with your picture on it,” he said. Najib said now party members should put aside petty problems they might be facing and focus on working hard on ensuring BN candidates chosen scored big victories.

As for the Federal Territory BN, he said its leaders had pledged to retain all nine seats won in the last election apart from dislodging the opposition in Cheras, Kepong, Bukit Bintang and Seputeh.

–Bernama