The campaign for the Galas by-election will face a lull this weekend as both PAS and BN turn their attention to the Malaysia Cup finals tomorrow night between Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan.

NONE "We will not stop our campaign, just take a breather. We focus on bola (ball) first, then after we win, we will return our focus on the elections," said PAS elections strategist Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Abdullah today.

Speaking at the daily press briefing at the PAS operation centre at Gua Musang town, Wan Abdul Rahim said that his party will be sponsoring five buses to ferry Kelantan supporters to Bukit Jalil Stadium, Kuala Lumpur to catch the finals.

He believes that in total, up to 1,000 buses are being chartered for the event by Kelantanese football fans, Umno and the Kelantan Supporters Club.

"We will also provide large screen televisions at each polling district in Galas for those who want to watch the game. There will also be screens all over Kelantan," he said.

Football cheer for 700 BN workers

NONE Meanwhile, Umno is also in a celebratory mood and was seen dishing out free tickets for the finals to Galas residents.

According to Bernama , about 700 BN polling district workers for the by-election will get to watch the Malaysia Cup soccer finals match in Kuala Lumpur.

They will be taken to the federal capital and back in buses, said the Gua Musang MP.

"We are arranging 17 buses to take them to Kuala Lumpur. They are given a day's leave and will be brought back after the match," he was quoted as saying.

Tengku Razaleigh said the BN workers were disappointed that they could not get tickets to watch the match, that kicks off at 8.45pm tomorrow.

"This is not an excuse to buy votes. There are no conditions. We give it to our workers, our party workers. Only for them.

"The beneficiaries are those who have registered as BN party workers in the polling districts," he told Bernama after launching a 1Youth 1Malaysia futsal tournament in Sungai Terah this morning.

Meanwhile, it comes as no surprise that Umno has access to such vast amounts of tickets, since former Kelantan Umno chief Anuar Musa runs the Kelantan Football Association.

Kelantan folks are looking forward to seeing its state team turn their fortunes around in the repeat Malaysia Cup final clash with Negeri Sembilan.

Last year, Negeri Sembilan thrashed Kelantan 3-1.