Najib wants far larger majority votes for Pekan in GE15

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak wants Umno and BN to win his home constituency Pekan in Pahang and all four state seats with a far larger majority of votes in the next general election.

At the Pekan Umno annual assembly today, Najib said there’s a need to recover even though the party won the seat in 2018 with a 24,859-vote majority.

“Umno/BN is strong in Pekan, so our goal is not just to win the seat but to also get the highest majority votes among all our candidates.

“What we obtained in 2018 was not as encouraging as the 2013 election. We want to get back to previous levels where the margin was even larger,” said the Pekan MP.

Najib, who first contested and won in the Pekan by-election back in 1978 following the demised of his father and former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein, retained the seats for the past eight polls.

In 2018, amid public anger over the 1MDB scandal, Najib's majority votes in Pekan slipped to 24,859 compared to a 35,613-vote majority in 2013.

Youth votes

"We should focus on voters aged between 18 and 40, who made up 56.77 percent of 118,835 voters. We should also focus on the voters aged between 18 and 20 because they have lower (political) awareness and knowledge.

"Some don't even know their representatives. So, this group of voters would go for personality and charisma. Secondly, they also look at current issues," he said.

Therefore, Najib said the youth and women wings should organise events to cater to these voters’ needs.

In particular, Najib instructed the wings to set up a call centre, which will work full time until the general election in order to reach out to the youth.

Najib also urged Umno wings to play an active role in the membership recruitment exercise given the current members only made up to 26 percent of total voters.

In his 30-minute speech, Najib also urged party members to either pray for him or show solidarity with him by showing up at Federal Court next week, where the apex court will hear his final appeal to set aside his conviction and sentence in the RM42 million SRC International corruption case.

Najib's eldest son Mohd Nizar, 44, has been touted as the best candidate to replace him in the Pekan constituency if Najib is no longer eligible to be fielded as a candidate following the apex court ruling.

Nizar had served international accounting firm Deloitte for 18 years before joining the Pahang state government as the Pahang Social Action Council's economy and human capital bureau chief. - Mkini