More severe slander against BN to come, warns Zahid

Umno acting deputy president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has warned BN and its candidates of more serious slander to come.

He said such BN had been caught off-guard by such “surprise last minute attacks” in the past two general elections and urged supporters not to be swayed.

“I’m confident that even larger attacks are still to come because they are extremely desperate. When they have crossed the line, we can see more material that not only address national issues but also carry out character assassinations, especially against parliamentary and state assembly candidates.

“National leaders like the prime minister and myself are used to such attacks. What I hope is that hardcore BN supporters will not budge and believe such slander.

“The same goes to fence-sitters who will accept the fact that BN under the prime minister has done the best,” he told a press conference in Baling today after officiating the ground-breaking ceremony for a new Universiti Teknologi Mara campus.

Earlier, during his speech to an audience of about 4,000 people, he said “poison pen” leaflets targeting Baling Umno candidate Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim had been distributed in the constituency. These leaflets did not originate from BN, he said, but from third parties.

He told the audience that he is almost certain that there will be more “surprise last-minute attacks” like these which he said is slander not unlike the allegations that 40,000 Bangladeshi nationals were being flown in to pose as voters.

The allegation, which had been debunked, had circulated during the 13th general election and had caught BN off-guard, he said.

Azeez is currently the Baling incumbent having won the last general election with a 5,185 vote majority. Prior to that in 2008, PAS’ Taib Azamudden Md Taib had defeated Azeez with an even larger 7,613 vote majority.

For the coming election, Azeez will be defending his seat against PAS candidate Hassan Saad and Bersatu candidate Mohd Taufik Yaacob. - Mkini