Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has asked Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties not to quarrel in their bid to jostle for new seats proposed by the Election Commission under the redelineation of electoral boundaries.

The deputy prime minister was quoted by national news agency Bernama as saying that of paramount importance was to ensure the selected BN candidate would win in the seat contested with the solid support of component parties.

"Quarrels (among us) will only lead to disaster. We (BN) will become weak and when we are weak, the opposition will take advantage.

"More importantly, we have to work hard to ensure our candidates win in the coming general election," Abdullah, who is also BN deputy chairman, said when opening the Melaka BN Convention in Melaka today.

Abdullah said decisions on selecting BN candidates were thoroughly thought out and discussed before they were fielded to contest and as such, there should be no grounds for dissatisfaction to the extent of causing a split among leaders and party members.

Tradition of cooperation

The tradition of cooperation practised in BN was to ensure the victory of its candidates with the undivided support of all component parties irrespective of who was the candidate, he added.

The Election Commission, had on Aug 8, announced the creation of 25 new parliamentary and 59 state seats following the redelineation exercise, bringing the total number of parliamentary seats from 194 to 219 and state seats to 563 from 504.

Earlier, Melaka Chief Minister Mohamed Ali Rustam said the state BN was adopting five approaches to achieve the objectives of a people-friendly government in efforts to restore the masses' confidence in the ruling coalition.

He said all BN component party leaders should often go down to the ground to endear themselves with the people apart from holding "open day" on Thursdays and "welfare day" on Fridays. The state government had made it compulsory for members of component parties to practise the "hardworking, honest and transparent" work culture to win the hearts and minds of the people, said Mohamed Ali, who is also Melaka BN chief.