Najib Razak believes BN has a good chance of winning in the mixed areas, including the Stampin parliamentary constituency in Sarawak in the 13th general election (GE13).

NONE He said he was satisfied after attending two separate functions, including the gathering of the people with the leader in Kampung Semeba and the opening of a Chinese school in Stampin, where we was greeted by 10,000 people in both places.

"For areas with a high percentage of Chinese voters, I notice there is a slight improvement in accepting and giving their support back to BN although we (party machinery) must continue to work for greater engagement with them," he said at a media conference after the opening and ground breaking ceremony for the new block of SJK (C) Chung Hua No 2, Kuching today.

Also present were his wife, Rosmah Mansor, Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu, Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Peter Chin, Deputy Works Minister Yong Khoon Seng, who is the incumbent BN representative for Stampin, and the BN candidate for Bandar Kuching constituency, Tan Kai.

In the May 5 general election, Yong will be challenged by Julian Tan Kok Ping from the DAP and Soo Lina from the State Reform Party (Star) in a three-cornered fight.

On the chances of the opposition parties winning parliamentary seats in Sarawak and Sabah, Najib said he could not see any indication that they could win, especially in the rural areas which formed the BN stronghold.

He believed that the rural voters realised that their future was in the hands of the BN that would continue with the agenda of transformation that they had enjoyed.

"We (BN) have the track record in developing the rural areas and they know that their aspirations will not be achieved without the BN," he said.

BN not endorsing SWP

In the same vein, he also did not expect the Sarawak Workers Party (SWP), which is contesting against BN in six Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) areas, whose voters comprised 90 percent Iban, would win.

He said BN did not endorse SWP, which claimed to be BN-friendly because by standing against BN candidates, the opposition party was affecting BN's chances of victory.

Generally, he was satisfied with the BN campaign operations although in the iinitial stages there had been internal problems, especially in terms of the structure of the machinery and dissatisfaction in the selection of candidates.

"It appears that we have resolved most of the problems and our machinery is ensuring that our election work can be carried out with focus," he said.

However, he said the internal problems faced by the opposition parties were more serious than the ones faced by the BN.

"At least we don't have any component party contesting each other but they could not resolve this problem on nomination day although there were attempts to withdraw and so on, but the clash between one another and dissatisfaction among themselves were more serious than in the BN.

"But the BN must take the opposition strategy to deny the BN the two-thirds majority as a serious challenge and to work hard to ensure BN victory in the GE13," Najib added.

- Bernama