Kelantan Umno to assist Terengganu BN

Kelantan Umno will lend a helping hand to Terengganu Barisan Nasional (BN) to enable the coalition to retain the Kuala Besut state seat in an impending by-election.

Its liaison committee chairman, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said he had asked Pasir Puteh Umno division chief Zawawi Othman, who was also Semerak assemblyman, to mobilise his election machinery to assist the Besut BN in campaigning.

"Zawawi, who was an ex-teacher in Kuala Besut, still has an influence in Kuala Besut.

"As Kuala Besut has been my adopted constituency, I resolve to defend it," Mustapa told reporters after opening the Kelantan Non-Pensionable Ex-Servicemen Association's inaugural annual general meeting here Saturday.

The Kuala Besut state seat fell vacant after its assemblyman, Dr A Rahman Mokhtar died of lung cancer at the Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital in Kuala Terengganu on Tuesday.

Two-term assemblyman A. Rahman, 55, of the BN retained the seat after beating Napisah Ismail of PAS with a 2,434-vote majority in the 13th general election on May 5.