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Zahid warns Umno not to be caught off guard by Pakatan's attacks in GE14

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi wants Umno members to be prepared for unexpected last-minute attacks by the opposition in the upcoming 14th general election (GE14).

He said this was because he did not want them to be caught off guard, as what happened in the previous elections which saw Barisan Nasional (BN) being forced to answer issues such as a blackout and the alleged bringing in of 40,000 Bangladeshis as voters.

“In their campaigns, they (opposition) claimed that BN felt they would lose and hence would cut off electricity supply at the vote-counting centres so that under the cloak of darkness, they could change the ballot papers...could cheat to ensure victory for BN... we couldn’t answer to that.

“We got ensnared to respond because at the last minute, the issue was posed to the public which we did not expect as there were no pre-emptive measures to deal with such issues at the last minute.”

Ahmad Zahid said this when opening the ‘Information and Media Convention 2.0: Steadfastness in Struggle’, held in conjunction with the Umno General Assembly 2017 which kicked off today.

Ahmad Zahid said the problem could be overcome if the Umno information machinery was more aggressive in countering the slander and lies against the party by employing conventional methods such as face-to-face interaction and at the same time, using social media to provide explanations.

He said using social media would be more efficient as it encompassed all groups in society which the party wished to reach out to and could be accessed anywhere.

“With just a mobile phone, we can record speeches at ceramah and information online to enable these to be viewed instantly by the public,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid also urged Umno members to use the ‘get out the voters (GOTV)’ strategy on polling day so that the efforts made by the party machinery to get people to come out and vote would bear fruit.

He said party vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein and its secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor planned to hold one-day courses on the GOTV method across the country after the 2017 Umno General Assembly.

Bernama

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