Barisan Nasional is jubilant over Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak's ‘warning' that state polls would be called as soon as another state assemblyperson defects.

Jubilant, because the coalition is confident of a big enough victory at the polls to wrest the state back from Pakatan Rakyat, which has been in the saddle since 2008.

BN state leaders told Malaysiakini that the elections may come 'anytime now' as the internal bickering between the Pakatan parties intensifies.

"But what they do not know is the rakyat is also prepared to ditch them," they said.

Alor Setar Umno Youth chief Zubir Zabidi said "the mood of the rakyat as it is now is ripe for another election as most are dissatisfied with the current state rule".

Zubir denied any attempts by BN to 'bribe' Pakatan parliamentarians or assemblypersons and attributes their pending defections to "major dissatisfaction with their party leadership".

"The question of bribery does not arise as the defectors are not crossing over to Umno or the BN, most of them are independents and have nothing to do with us," said Zubir during a telephone interview.

S moke screen covers weaknesses

"All this talk of bribery of their lawmakers is just to cover-up their party's weaknesses, internal fighting and disaffection with their own leadership," he added.

azizan abdul razak Recently, Azizan ( left ) was said to have warned Umno about state polls as rumours are rife of more defections from PKR reps, engineered by the latter, in the coming days.

There are three remaining PKR representatives - Tan Joo Long @ Tan Chow Kang (Sidam), S Manikumar (Bukit Selambau) and Lim Soo Nee (Kulim), who are all state executive councillors.

Meanwhile, Zubir has no doubt that voters will choose a BN candidate over Pakatan's and blamed BN's 2008 general election losses on premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's weak leadership.

"But this time, under the new leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak, we are prepared to go all the way to obtain victory for the BN," he said.

Kedah MCA state chief Chong Itt Chew said that it is not interested in 'inviting' any Pakatan assembly reps to cross over to the party.

"But we will welcome them if they do because it seems they (Pakatan) are going to break (up) very soon due to their internal problems," he added.

chua soi lek dinner at penang 260310 alor setar division chief chong itt chew Chong ( right ) mulls the possibility of a DAP assemblyperson crossing over from the Pakatan, saying "he would have no choice but to do so as he cannot continue to defend the state government in the face of rising unhappiness of the Chinese community".

"As a component party, he (DAP assemblyperson) has to answer all the queries raised by the Chinese community over the actions of the state government, how long can he do that?" he asked.

There is only one DAP assemblyperson in Kedah, Lee Guan Aik, whose intentions to defect is still unclear.

Polls threat shield against defections

Yet despite rumours of defections, the government is confident of its "stability" with the menteri besar persistently threatening to call for elections if defections do occur.

Pakatan state election director Johari Abdul said Umno is aware that Azizan's 'clear cut warnings is a real threat' so for now, the situation in "Kedah is stable".

" parliament briefing 030408 johari abdul If they try to be funny and there is just one more defection, we are going for a state polls, we are serious about this" warned Johari, ( left ) who is Sungai Petani assemblyperson.

"Even if we have the slightest indication of this, we are going to face them in an election, let's see how they fare," added the PKR supreme council member.

So far two PKR state reps - Tan Wei Shu (Kulim) and Mohammad Radzhi Salleh (Lunas) - and a parliamentarian - Zulkifli Noordin (Kulim-Bandar Baharu) - have abandoned the party to become independents.

Currently, Pakatan has 20 seats - PAS (16), PKR (3) and DAP (1) - out of the 36 in Kedah.

azlan The BN has 14 state seats and needs another three to four defectors from the Pakatan to take back the state, similar to what happened in Perak.

However, Lim, at one time a subject of defection rumours, said the BN may cease its operations to tempt Pakatan state reps to defect as it would be a futile exercise at this moment.

The reasoning being, the closer to the next general election, which the Pakatan predicts will called early next year, the lower the value of defectors to the BN, he added.

Lim said even if that were to happen it would be their own choice, as it is true that some of them are disgruntled at not being appointed to the state executive council.

He was referring to Tan, the latest to jump out of PKR, at the height of the Hulu Selangor by-election campaign last month.

"In any case we are prepared for state elections, we have no choice if the menteri besar calls for it," he added.

Perak imbroglio

Kedah is not the only state mired in defection woes.

Since early last year, Perak assembly reps - Mohd Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) and Jamaluddin Mat Radzi (Behrang); Port Klang's - Badrul Hisham Abdullah ; and MPs - Zahrain Mohd Hashim (Bayan Baru), Tan Tee Beng (Nibong Tebal) and Mohsin Fadzli Samsuri (Bagan Serai) left the party citing differences with the leadership.

Other than elected reps, former PKR secretary-general Salehuddin Hashim , Hulu Selangor division treasurer Dr Halili Rahmat and former Penang deputy chief minister I Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin have also defected to join Umno.

Jelapang assemblywoman Hee Yit Foong in Perak is so far the only DAP defector.