MUAR, Feb 27 — The Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition cannot be too comfortable with multi-cornered contests in the Johor State Election (PRN), says Ketereh UMNO division chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa.
He said, instead, the BN machinery should consider this as a new challenge, which called for a more comprehensive campaign organisation.
He said regardless of whether the multi-cornered contests gave an advantage to BN or not, the coalition should remain vigilant and look at the latest developments of other parties after the names of the candidates were announced.
“Everything needs to be evaluated by the machinery, such as what is trending, where are the parties participating taking their votes from.
“Of course the more (candidates) the merrier, and in theory, many (parties that) are divided among BN’s opponents (can give the coalition an advantage), but that is in theory, so we cannot be too confident.
“We will evaluate all this. BN’s approach is not rigid, we are flexible and the approach we use is based on the situation in a particular area,” he told reporters after visiting the BN Operations Room at the Bukit Naning state constituency here today.
Annuar was asked to comment on the statement by UMNO President Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi this afternoon saying that BN did not see the multi-cornered clashes as an advantage to the coalition.
Out of 56 state seats being contested in the Johor state polls, two, namely Kempas and Tiram, will see seven-cornered contests, while there are six-cornered contests in four seats, five-cornered (eight), four-cornered (35) and three-cornered (seven).
Meanwhile, Annuar said the issue of using a ‘poster boy’ for a party would not necessarily affect the number of votes in the Johor polls.
He said it was more important for BN to be consistent in focusing on micro-management and meeting as many voters as possible.
“Besides that, we need to maintain BN’s image as a moderate party, adopting a prudent approach. We also use a large election machinery, but in a polite and effective way, ”he said.
