Caretaker deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today hit out at Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin for making what he described as baseless allegations against the BN in the run-up to the general election on May 9.

Zahid, who is also the Home Minister, said Bersatu chairperson Mahathir was being irresponsible by continuing to hurl accusations of being sabotaged and prevented from contesting the general election.

He said Mahathir had used similar tactics when he was the prime minister to garner the people’s sympathy.

"We have been fooled by his tactics before, and he is using similar tactics now but with a different approach,” he said to reporters after an Armed Forces social programme in Kampung Sungai Sumun near Hutan Melintang, Perak.

Zahid said this when asked to comment on Mahathir’s latest allegation of having been sabotaged by the Royal Customs Department and Immigration Department at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang last Tuesday, after having flown in from Terengganu.

Earlier, Mahathir had claimed that the aircraft he was to have boarded at Subang for Langkawi was sabotaged by certain quarters.

Zahid said he hoped that the people would not be fooled by Mahathir who, he added, was merely trying to garner sympathy.

On Muhyiddin, he said the Bersatu president should concentrate on the election campaign in the Pagoh parliamentary and Gambir state constituencies and not allege that the BN would do anything at all to prevent the people from going to the polls on May 9.

“It does not make sense. He (Muhyiddin) was in my position (as the deputy prime minister). He should not make such accusations once he is no longer in the government,” he said.

Zahid was asked to comment on an allegation by Muhyiddin that the BN would even resort to felling trees to block roads and offer money to voters to vote for BN candidates.

Zahid, who is defending the Bagan Datuk parliamentary seat for the sixth term, also hit out at the opposition for alleging that the military camp being built in Hutan Melintang was aimed at securing additional votes for the BN.

He said the camp was being built there because there is no military camp in southern Perak.

“The nearest military camp is in Sungai Buloh, Selangor, while the Royal Malaysian Navy base is in Lumut, thus causing a vacuum in southern Perak,” he said.

Zahid said the new military camp was not merely for defence as the soldiers based there could also serve the community in Hutan Melintang.

He also dismissed opposition claims that the soldiers in the country were getting paid for doing nothing because they did not engage in battles but only underwent training daily.

- Bernama