KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 — Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is coming under considerable pressure from Umno to change his stand that Barisan Nasional should give the Penanti by-election a miss.
Some party officials, especially those aligned to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, have been parlaying straw polls and ground reports to push two messages: that the voters in the state constituency want Barisan Nasional to field a candidate and chances of victory are better than ever.
Others are stressing a more emotional point — that the ruling coalition has never backed down from an electoral fight before and to do so at a time when bragging rights is firmly with Pakatan Rakyat could be debilitating to the morale of party members.
A decision on whether BN will field a candidate in Penanti will be made tomorrow after Najib chairs Umno’s political bureau meeting.
The party president has all along said that he was not in favour of contesting the by-election, made necessary after PKR’s Fairus Khairuddin resigned following a clutch of allegations against him.
Najib’s rationale was that by-elections should only be held if the incumbent died or was incapable of carrying out his responsibilities for health reasons.
Contesting elections for flippant reasons, he argues, would be a waste of public funds. -- [more]
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