National issues are believed not to influence voters in the Slim State Assembly (DUN) constituency in the by-election (PRK) on August 29.

UMNO Deputy President Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan said what the voters in the DUN want is development and reforms in the area.

In fact, he added, national issues do not dominate the by-election campaign atmosphere, instead voters focused more on local problems.

"There are not many national issues anymore. I have not heard of national issues. In fact, the national issues in this by-election are not the main topic.

"The issues (raised) are a lot of local issues, and also as I mentioned earlier, the problems faced by the community," he told the media here, today, during a friendly session with voters in Pekan Slim.

Commenting further, Mohamad said since the establishment of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, national issues in Perak have been seen to subside.

He said the situation was different during the previous government which played a lot of national sentiments and issues.

“So, Alhamdulillah, because we do not touch on things that can sometimes confuse the people.

"But, what we need to do is, we want to make sure that we can collect the problems of the local community, we can collect and we can raise them later," he added.

Apart from that, the Rantau State Assemblyman (Adun) said voters and community leaders are also seen accepting Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Mohd Zaidi Aziz.

He said Mohd Zaidi will bring the community development agenda in the DUN and resolve local issues when elected as the people's representative later.

The Slim by-election involves a three-cornered contest between Mohd Zaidi, 43, and two Independent candidates, S. Santhasekaran, 44, and Amir Khusyairi Mohamad Tanusi, 38.