BN 'top guns' ready to take on opposition

Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) has a list of the brightest and best qualified candidates to compete in any seat, especially 'hot' and challenging seats, in the 13th General Election (GE13).

Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the list of candidates will be finalised and announced soon and expressed confidence that the BN candidates would not encounter any difficulties when facing contenders from the opposition.

Yesterday Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who attended a 'Meeting of the BN Chairman with Party Machinery' programme at the Putra World Trade Centre, here, said the list of BN candidates for GE13 would be announced within a week.

"The opposition are playing the psychological war game in politics and fishing for votes through nominating prominent candidates in BN's seats such as Putrajaya, Gelang Patah and Pulai," he told Bernama when contacted recently.

He said BN were not shaken by such a move and are ready in the do-or-die battle of the GE13 which is considered to be the "mother of all elections" because among BN's objectives are winning the hearts and minds of the people.

Ahmad Zahid who is also Defence Minister said the Malaysian Armed Forces were also ready to carry out their duties in serving and protecting the people and country during GE13.

For the GE13, members of the police force, armed forces and their spouses will vote three days earlier than the polling day but subjected to the same procedures like normal voters, the only difference is that the voting hours are from 8am to 7pm to accommodate their working hours.

Polling centres for security forces would be decided by the Election Commission, for example the centres could be the State Contingent Headquarters or district police headquarters and as for the members of the armed forces, their respective army camps would serve as the polling centres.

On April 10, Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said Malaysians will go to the polls on May 5, nomination has been set for April 20 and early voting, also known as advance voting, has been set for April 30.

Abdul Aziz said the GE13 would have a campaign period of 15 days, two days more than in the 2008 General Election.

Based on the electoral roll, there are 12,992,661 ordinary voters and 275,341 early voters, comprising 161,251 military personnel and their spouses; 111,136 police personnel and their spouses and 2,954 absentee voters who lived abroad, Aziz said.

For the first time in the history of elections in Malaysia, all media personnel, including journalists, photographers, cameramen and technicians, working outside their registered area of voting are eligible to apply for early voting.