The Barisan Nasional lodged a police report today against opposition party Keadilan for holding election campaigns outside the perimeter of the Indera Kayangan constituency.

The ceramah (political talks) were allegedly held by Keadilan last night at Titi Chai in Hutan Aji, which is located outside the area of Indera Kayangan which will see a hotly-contested by-election on Saturday.

Perlis Umno information chief Abu Bakar Ismail told malaysiakini that Titi Chai is located near one of the polling centres in Bohor Gandil.

"Contesting parties are only allowed to hold election campaigns within the Indera Kayangan constituency. As such, the state BN has decided to lodge a police report against Keadilan for breaching this rule," he said.

Abu Bakar, who is state assemblyman for Pauh, said Umno was also curious to how a police permit was said to be given to Keadilan to organise the ceramah at Titi Chai.

However, he said, most of Keadilan's ceramah were not well-received by voters and were mostly attended by outsiders.

On issues raised by Keadilan during its ceramah , Abu Bakar said the opposition party was telling voters to back the party since the loss of Indera Kayangan by BN would not affect the balance of power in the state government.

Defections

Abu Bakar also claimed that a large of number PAS members in the constituency have applied to join Umno.

"Because the candidate for this by-election is from Keadilan, our focus is also on Keadilan members who want to defect to Umno," he said.

To date, about 360 Keadilan members are believed to have crossed over to Umno. The most prominent is Perlis Keadilan Youth deputy chief Syed Araniri Syed Ahmad who said on Saturday he had lost confidence in Keadilan's struggle and was unhappy with the party's choice of candidate.

The Indera Kayangan by-election campaign period is now in its fifth day. Polling on Jan 19 will see a straight fight between BN's MCA candidate Oui Ah Lan, 58 and Keadilan's Khoo Yang Chong, 60.

The seat fell vacant following the death of former BN state assemblyman Khor Liang Tee last month.