PM hopes Kajang voters would give mandate to BN

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Saturday expressed hope that voters in Kajang will give their mandate to Barisan Nasional's (BN) candidate in a bid to intensify efforts to strengthen inter-racial cooperation and to boost country's development.

The prime minister said the Kajang state by-election, dubbed the Kajang Move, was orchestrated by PKR to achieve its political agenda.

"We also regret the fact that the campaign for Kajang by-election has become the platform for opposition party leaders to tarnish the image of our former leaders, who are obviously have retired from politics.

"This include the attacks on (former Finance Minister) Tun Daim Zainuddin who has done so much for the country," he said in a statement here on Saturday.

Najib said personal attacks on these former leaders reflected the opposition's disrespectful attitude towards those who had made major deeds and contributions to the country.

The Kajang state by-election is being held after Lee Chin Cheh of PKR resigned as the state assemblyman on January 27.

The by-election, scheduled for Sunday, sees a straight fight between BN candidate Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun and PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Najib said the campaign for the by-election was running quite smoothly despite the fact that the government had to coordinate the massive search and rescue operation to find the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that went missingsince March 8, together with 239 people on board.

"Let's continue to pray that the search will be fruitful. This incident should not be politicised because the truth still remains a mystery," he added.