Party members not selected to become candidates in the coming general election should not sabotage the party, said BN Youth chairman Khairy Jamaluddin.

As such, the Umno Youth chief reasoned, they should hold on to the pledge that it was the people who decided which candidate would be victorious.

"I am worried that today, all would agree with the prime minister over the issue of winnable candidate.

"However, when they are not selected as candidates, they might begin to dispute and, what is even more damaging, sabotage the party.

"I hope they are aware that they do not decide on the winnable candidates, but the people. The prime minister has the report and mechanism to know who the winnable candidate was, and in which area," he told reporters after participating in the Sepang Barisan Nasional Cycling Programme organised by Sepang BN Youth in Dengkil today.

Two days ago, Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also BN chairman, announced that BN would not limit the candidate's age and also would not consider how many times a representative had stood for election, in the 13th general election, so long as the candidate could win.

Two months to reach peak

Khairy said the prime minister made a valid point that there were more voters than party members and therefore, the people's support was needed to win.

He said it was of no use to be popular within the party when the candidate did not receive the people's acceptance.

On preparations for the next general election, Khairy said it was divided into two levels, namely party machinery and strategy, to identify young voters in each district voting centre.

"The party machinery is progressing as planned, and the identification of young voters was still in the process... I have allocated two months for us to reach complete preparedness," he said.

On today's programme, Khairy said more than 1,000 youths participated in the eight-kilometre cycling programme in Dengkil.

He said the programme had achieved several objectives to highlight BN's presence in the state legislative assembly and parliamentary constituencies for greater public awareness, especially among the younger generation.

- Bernama