KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the distribution of seats among Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties and the list of candidates for the 13th general election had almost been finalised.The prime minister said the selection of candidates, however, would require further scrutiny to ensure that they were the right choice, not just from the aspect of capability but acceptance in the constituency they would be contesting.
“We will decide and make the announcement. There are some views that we need to discuss but have not made any decision yet,” he told reporters after chairing the BN supreme council meeting, here, tonight.
Najib who is also BN chairman, said there were many indicators that the people were more inclined towards BN, but it did not want to be complacent and over-confident as to assume that nothing could shake the party’s position.
“We are aware that in this election, a lot of factors could influence the outcome,” he said.
“I hope we can double our efforts to ensure that we do the best in everything that needs to be done, so that our BN machinery will have that spirit of confidence to win,” he said.
Najib said the meeting tonight also discussed other matters such as the preparation of the manifesto and logistics for the 13th general election which would be held soon.
On the possibility that parliament would be dissolved simultaneously with the Johor state assembly on March 21, he replied: “We will know when the time comes. We are still guessing, never mind go ahead and guess. I like this guessing game.”
Asked whether tonight’s meeting was the last for the BN supreme council, he said: “This could be the last meeting or there could be more meetings, even next week we have a meeting.”
On former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement in an interview with Bloomberg recently that he had inherited a weak government, Najib said he would do his best to form a strong government.
“We will do our level best, of course you want a strong government, everybody wants a strong government,” he said.
— BERNAMA
