Candidate Decides BN's Continued Victory, Says Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said a candidate with credibility that is liked by the people and has no personal problems will give the Barisan Nasional (BN) an opportunity to win the by-election for the Merlimau state seat.

The Prime Minister, who is also the BN chairman, said the best candidate for Merlimau was important because national issues used to attack the BN were not accepted by the people.

"It appears that the people's support (for the BN) is growing but (we have to) ensure that we work hard (to win in Merlimau)," he told reporters after chairing the BN Supreme Council meeting at the Menara Datuk Onn, here Friday.

He said the meeting also discussed preparations for the by-election for the Merlimau state seat and listened to a briefing by BN deputy chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to be used as a guide where the election machinery had been mobilised and specific programmes already drawn up.

"For example, the Deputy Prime Minister will go (to Merlimau) on March 14 and I on March 19, followed by other leaders to assist in efforts to achieve victory in Merlimau," he said. "We also take note of the news reports that the Melaka Chief Minister (Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam) spends six hours daily in the Merlimau state constituency," he said.

Najib said the meeting also discussed the performance in achieving a higher majority of almost 50 per cent in the victory in the by-election for the Tenang state seat in Johor although the voter turn-out had dropped.

"PAS could not gain a foothold in Johor despite fielding a candidate and their (opposition) top leaders going down to campaign. It is very obvious that Johor is the bastion for Umno and BN," he said.

Najib said the best performance by the BN was in the three Felda areas which contributed a majority of 2,500 out of the total of 3,707 obtained.

"This means that the issue played up that Felda is bankrupt is a lie. The settlers and the second generation had rejected what had been alleged," he said.

He said the post-mortem also revealed that the non-Malay support for the BN continued to rise and this was a good sign and called for efforts so that support for the BN would increase.

"Generally, we are satisfied despite the relentless attacks made by the opposition parties in raising various issues, but in the end, the people were more confident in the BN rather than the opposition," he said.