Muhyiddin Yassin said BN will focus its attention on wooing the fence-sitters during the last leg of its campaign trail for the Sibu parliamentary by-election on Sunday.

He said the next 48-hours would be critical in determining the BN's victory to retain the urban seat, which has almost 67 percent Chinese voters.

"Apart from clarifying issues bought up by the people, our machinery has identified a few areas with a sizeable number of voters who have yet to decide on which candidate to choose as their new elected representative," he told a news conference after visiting Kampung Jeriah, a Malay village on the town outskirts, about 15km from Sibu.

In the by-election, the BN's candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew is in a three-cornered tussle against the DAP's Wong Ho Leng, who is also Bukit Assek state assemblyman, and an independent, Narawi Harun.

DPM takes over from PM

Muhyiddin, who is continuing with the BN's campaign after Prime Minister Najib Razak's ended a two-day visit here yesterday, said the voters were now more inclined to support the BN, based on feedback received from the people.

"There are encouraging signs but we cannot be over-confident," he said.

Having set foot in all corners of the constituency - in the urban areas, outskirts, rural and interior areas, including Iban longhouses, he said, the BN as a responsible government, had taken the opportunity to resolve some of the problems and issues faced by the people of Sibu, including on infrastructure facilities and flood mitigation.

He was confident the people now understood things better following explanation given by the government to clarify issues that were harped on by the opposition to hoodwink them.

He urged the voters to come out in full force to exercise their rights on Sunday, adding that the Election Commission had given an assurance that the voting process would go about very smoothly .

Some 2,537 postal voters, comprising police and military personnel, out of the registered 54,695 voters, began voting yesterday and have till today to cast their ballots.

- Bernama