SUNGAI PETANI, 3 April 2009: The Barisan Nasional (BN) campaign in the Bukit Selambau state by-election will be boosted further with the return of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Umno on 6 April.
It will provide a finishing touch to the campaign just 15 hours before the voters go to the polls.
His son, Datuk Mukhriz, said the former prime minister was expected to attend a gathering at the Mara Skills Institute field at about 5.30pm.
Mukhriz said the former Umno president would announce his return to Umno at the gathering, during which he would also rally the people to support BN’s candidate Datuk S Ganesan.
Mukhriz, who is Jerlun member of Parliament, expects Mahathir’s presence to create a positive impact for the BN, especially in attracting fence-sitters.
“Tun (Dr Mahathir) will meet the people and rally them to support the BN,” he told reporters after visiting the Tasek Apong polling centre here.
Joining Mahathir back to Umno would be his supporters as well as Mukhriz’s brother, Mokhzani, who has applied to rehehjoin the Merbok Umno division.
On the statement by a supporter of Mahathir, Maj (Rtd) Anuar Abdul Hamid, who is one of the 13 independent candidates in the area, that he would rejoin Umno if the former prime minister did so, Mukhriz said, the BN had decided that the Bukit Selambau seat be given to MIC.
“BN has given the seat MIC and we will campaign for the BN,” he said.
Anuar, a former Merbok Umno division committee member, recently said that if Mahathir rejoined Umno he would also do so even if he won seat on an independent ticket.
On Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s appointment as the prime minister, Mukhriz said he expected Najib to bring political and economic stability.
“Najib has a good example to follow… his father (the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein) who became the prime minister at a time when the country was facing a political crisis,” he said. — Bernama
