Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the proposal to allow direct membership in the BN should be considered as the situation has changed now and benefits will arise from such a move.

The former BN chairperson and former Umno president said BN used to have such methods in the past but problems arose when direct members wanted to become election candidates, and irking component parties.

"Because of that, the direct membership to the Alliance was ended and terminated.

"But maybe the situation is slightly different or has changed, so... we should consider the proposal," he told reporters after a visit to the Lotus headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk on Tuesday.

He was commenting on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's announcement last Friday that the BN would hold a convention end of this year to discuss amendments to the BN constitution to allow direct admission of  BN-friendly individuals, political parties and non-governmental organisations.

Dr Mahathir said some grassroots leaders might object to this as they did not want to be threatened or have their position jeopardised by better qualified candidates.

"In such a situation, direct members could easily join BN because there would be no objections or obstacles from these junior leaders who harbour ambitions to become candidates," he said.

- Bernama