The nascent cooperation between Barisan Nasional (BN), PAS and Bersatu for the Slim state by-election will boost the campaign and win voters to BN's side.

BN’s candidate, Mohd Zaidi Aziz stressed that although the three parties do not move together during the campaign, they still work together in terms of reaching out to voters to support the BN candidate in the upcoming by-election.

“I am in contact with the Bersatu leadership here (Slim) on their operations, meeting the voters and machinery.

“We are more focused, which means that UMNO will look after UMNO’s interests, MIC looks after MIC interests, MCA looks after MCA interests, and Bersatu looks after Bersatu members, PAS looks after PAS members, and this combination is aimed at obtaining votes for BN,” he said when met during his meet-and-greet session with voters in Pekan Trolak here today.

He added this strategy was the best way to win over the voters because each party has already identified its own voter base, especially when it was impossible to reach out to all the voters. A total of 23,094 voters are eligible to vote in the Slim by-election on Aug 29.

Meanwhile, Mohd Zaidi, 43, was confident that he can get at least 14,000 votes with the help of Bersatu.

The Slim state seat by-election is being held following the death of incumbent Datuk Mohd Khusairi Abdul Talib, 59, from BN, on July 15.

In the 14th General Election, Mohd Khusairi defended the state seat with a majority of 2,183 votes by defeating Mohd Amran Ibrahim from Bersatu, who contested under the PKR ticket, and Muhammad Zulfadli Zainal of PAS.

The Slim state by-election will witness a three-cornered fight between BN's Mohd Zaidi, Amir Khusyairi Mohamad Tanusi, 38, of the yet-to-be registered Parti Pejuang Tanahair (Pejuang) and Independent candidate S. Santhasekaran, 44.

Meanwhile, when met at Felda Besout 1 here, Amir Khusyairi said Dr Mahathir had stated his interest in going to help the campaign.

“Tun (Dr Mahathir) has said he was very interested to come here, but he has not confirmed the date,” the lawyer said.

Amir Khusyairi added that if elected, he was prepared to take any problems faced by the Orang Asli community in the constituency to the relevant authorities. - BERNAMA