KUALA LUMPUR, April 30– With five days left to polling, the Barisan Nasional (BN) camp was in upbeat mood, encouraged by the groundswell of support in the past few days.
Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is leading the coalition into the general election for the first time as the prime minister, said the momentum for the BN was on the rise throughout the country.
In contrast, the opposition alliance was increasingly divided over core issues and the bickerings among the parties concerned showed that they were not a viable pact that could be trusted, he said.
“They try to cover up their quarrels and their ideology clash by focusing attention to defeat BN in this polls, this is very dangerous. If we want to manage a government, we need close and strong cooperation,” said Najib, who is also BN chairman, after addressing a people’s gathering at Dataran Pasar Lambak in Pekan Nenas in Johor.
Johor, which has long been a BN fortress, is being targeted by the opposition, with the Gelang Patah parliamentary tussle set to be a titanic clash between Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman and DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang.
Najib expressed confidence that the “Johor way” of moderation and Abdul Ghani’s success in carrying inclusive policies, including tackling the Chinese schools’ issue, would retain Johor as a BN bastion.
In a boost for Najib and his transformation agenda, which he started four years ago after taking over the reins, the International Monetary Fund, in its Regional Economic Outlook for Asia and Pacific released today, said Malaysia and China were the highest-ranked developing Asian countries in a institutional strength index.
According to he IMF, institutional strength is defined as demonstrating higher political stability, better bureaucratic capability, fewer conflicts and less corruption.
Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz also said today that Malaysia was on track to achieve growth of five to six per cent this year, driven by strong domestic demand and investment flows despite a slowdown in China.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also criss-crossing the country to campaign, said there were signs of increasing support from Chinese majority-areas from a week ago and he asked campaigners to work harder.
“I have gone to almost all the states. I notice that the response for our campaign efforts has been positive with clear support from the voters,” he said after launching the construction of the overhead pedestrian bridge at Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Wen Hua in Melaka.
At a breakfast gathering with air force personnel in Subang near here, Muhyidin expressed the hope that the election would proceed smoothly and voters would not be intimidated. The run-up to the election has been marked by cases of arson caused by improvised explosives and molotov cocktails, as well as reports of physical violence.
After overseas postal voting took place for the first time yesterday, early voting for 272,387 armed forces, police and general operations force personnel and their spouses will start at 8am tomorrow in 544 polling centres.
It will be the first time indelible ink is used to mark the left index finger of voters before they cast their ballots. Election Commission secretary Kamaruddin Mohamed Baria said the colour of ink will be different from that to be used for the general polling on May 5.
Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan Berhad (PLUS) has also issued a travel advisory for those travelling home to vote as it expects a 20 per cent increase to 1.3 million vehicles using the North-South expressway daily during this period.
BERNAMA
