Voters favour BN, says Muhyiddin

Voters in Hulu Selangor are now generally in favour of the Barisan Nasional (BN) compared to 2008, said deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

   

Muhyiddin ( left ), who is also BN deputy chairman and Umno deputy president, said their openness to hear out BN leaders on issues showed that they were willing to accept the ruling coalition.

   

"I hope this momentum can be sustained and strengthened further. We will step up our campaign activities for the remaining six days before polling begins," he was reported by Bernama as saying in Hulu Yam Timur, Hulu Selangor today.

   

The deputy prime minister also said the BN election machinery would not take things for granted but would go all out to woo voters in the constituency, which was a BN stronghold prior to the 2008 election.

   

Asked about allegations by the opposition that the Election Commission (EC) had changed the polling stations of some 13,400 voters, Muhyiddin said the matter should be referred to the EC.

'I do not think they would do it'

"I am not aware of this. Let the EC explain, but I do not think they would do this. The Opposition always like to make baseless accusations... this matter needs to be clarified by the EC," he said.

   

Asked about Opposition claims that the PKR candidate Zaid Ibrahim would be accepted by Muslims in Hulu Selangor as compared to Muslims in Kota Baharu because the former are more open minded, Muhyiddin said Muslims are the same anywhere.

   

"Their expectations are the same. I leave it to the (Muslim) voters to make their own judgement," he said.

   

Touching on the APCO Worldwide issue, he said the government was not hiding anything and had clarified the matter a number of times.

   

"APCO is not an Israeli company... it is an international company that was hired to promote Malaysia. They are experts in the field and we pay them to promote our country.

   

"They are not involed in policy making. The opposition-ruled states also use foreign companies to attract investment. This is a normal matter," he said.

   

He said the opposition were resorting to accusing APCO as an Israeli entity because they saw the 1Malaysia slogan as a threat to their survival.

   

"Because the 1Malaysia concept has recieved all round support, they are trying all sorts of tricks to scuttle it. The 1Malaysia initiative introduced by Prime Minister Najib Razak is for the good of the country, not to be politicised," he said.

'Positive signals'  

He said Hulu Selangor were sending positive signals and understood the approach taken by Najib unlike PKR where the leaders in it themselves had expressed disappointment in the party's top leadership.

   

"The feel good factor is beginning to be there, the slogan is not important. We cannot compare 1Malaysia with 1Israel. Because many Malaysians have adopted the slogan, the Opposition are starting to twist it around for political mileage," Muhyiddin added.

   

The Hulu Selangor by-election on April 25 is a four-cornered fight between the BN's P. Kamalanathan, the MIC Information Chief; Zaid, who was formely minister in the prime minister's department when he was in Umno, and two independent candidates.