Tengku Adnan said Mubarak members should be well acquainted with the behaviour of their Umno comrades. — File pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 ― Some Umno members are concerned that the possible return of their retired colleagues may intensify competition for seats in the coming general election, party secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor revealed today
“I ask that they (former MPs) don’t take this to heart. You know full well how our comrades behave,” he said while addressing the members of Council of Former MPs (Mubarak) today.
Mubarak President Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Rahman later confirmed that the organisation has started campaigning for the party through non-mainstream outlets, such as reaching out to non-government organisations (NGO) that represent pensioners from the police, Armed Forces and former politicians..
“(Our campaigning) has already started. That was why the suspicions arose,” Abdul Aziz told reporters.
“We’re holding programmes that tell stories of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) success so far,” he added. “That is our role. We have absolutely no ambition to put ourselves forward as candidates.”
“If, however, one of us were to be chosen as a candidate ... it would be because of his personality, which is accepted by his constituency.”
Tengku Adnan also explained the BN was looking into fielding public-friendly candidates for the coming general election.
“We want contestants that the citizens want, not candidates who are chosen by the party or certain individuals in the party,” he stressed.
“Even our president himself (Datuk Seri Najib Razak) has said that he is not looking for a candidate desired by a president, but instead candidates whom the public wish to represent themselves.”
He also confirmed that BN intended to win every seat it contests, and not just those in the four states won by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in the last election,.
“We want more than a two-thirds majority in the Parliament, so we can make all the changes that need to be implemented.”
Earlier today, The Malaysian Insider reported Tengku Adnan as expressing confidence that the ruling coalition will do as well as it did in 2008, during a recent talk with the Foreign Correspondents Club of Malaysia, despite uneasiness over risky seats in the coalition’s “fixed deposit” states of Sabah and Sarawak.
According to government sources, BN expects to win more than the 140 federal seats it took in Election 2008 despite the onslaught and talk by PR that it can capture Putrajaya in the next general election.
BN politicians concede that as many as seven parliamentary seats in Sarawak and six in Sabah are vulnerable to PR, but maintain that their bastions in rural areas remain strong.
There are 222 parliamentary constituencies and 505 state seats up for grabs in the coming 13th general election, which must be held by April 2013.
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