The appearance of a surprise Independent candidate in Pahang's Batu Talam by-election was a plot by the opposition to test the Malay voters, said Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

He said that the opposition wanted to see the level of support given by the Malay voters in this rural Malay heartland constituency to a non-Malay candidate.

"Although he is an Independent candidate, he is in fact actually sponsored by the DAP," said Najib.

The deputy prime minister said that the ruling coalition will not take things lightly just because the contest is against an independent.

"There is no reason for us not to work hard and win handsomely," he said.

He also said that the BN will try to get the majority of the Chinese votes for its candidate.

An Umno stronghold

Meanwhile, BN candidate Abdul Aziz Mat Kiram said that he was not surprised by the opposition move to boycott the by-election.

"I am not surprised at all... Batu Talam has been an Umno stronghold for a long time," said Abdul Aziz.

"Looking at previous results, the opposition has only managed to get about 2,000 votes. Even if they had contested this time around, I don't think they could have garnered that many votes."

He also said that he will start his campaigning today, starting with making house calls tonight.

"From now, I will be much closer to the Batu Talam voters and will continue with the programmes put in place by my predecessor," he said.

The rural seat under the Raub parliamentary constituency fell vacant following the death of the incumbent BN assemblyman Tengku Paris Tengku Razlan, 66, on Dec 27 due to cancer.

Batu Talam has 10,525 registered voters, of whom 79 percent are Malays, 11 percent Chinese and 10 percent made up of Indian and Orang Asli voters.