Barisan Nasional (BN) is not confident of achieving the more than 3,000 vote majority target for the Jan 28 Batu Talam by-election in Pahang despite facing a 21-year-old independent candidate.

This is because local leaders believe that many Malay voters, who make up 79 percent of the total electorate, will not come out to cast their ballots.

They reached this conclusion following the feedback obtained during their door-to-door campaigning since Tuesday.

Batu Talam has 10,525 registered voters, which include 11 percent Chinese and 10 percent Indian and Orang Asli voters.

Previously, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak called on the BN machinery to ensure that their candidate Abdul Aziz Mat Kiram wins the seat with a majority exceeding 3,000.

However, Umno Raub division committee member Abdullah Abu Bakar told malaysiakini yesterday that the situation on the ground is different.

"Many Malay voters said there is no reason for them to come out and vote because they are confident the BN candidate will win with a big majority.

"They say they rather go on a holiday to Kuala Lumpur, watch television at home with their family and so forth," he added.

Abdullah said local Umno leaders are concerned because the same sentiment is being aired in the party's strongholds such as Batu Malim, Felda Terasang and Sega.

Fence-sitters

Apart from this problem, he said the BN machinery must also convince the some 500 to 1,000 fence-sitters to vote for Abdul Aziz.

"Up till today, we do not know who they are supporting. Maybe we will be able to gauge this in the coming days," he added.

The Umno leader also revealed that local residents have complained that many of their problems remain unresolved.

He said Felda settlers were unhappy that their children have not been resettled because land has not been allocated despite the interviews being conducted 10 years ago.

Meanwhile, Abu Bakar said they have not received any reports that MCA is conducting its own campaign in Batu Talam.

He said the BN campaign is carried out according to detailed planning to ensure its effectiveness.

"What we do is that the Umno machinery will concentrate on Malay areas, MCA and Gerakan in Chinese areas and MIC in Indian areas," he added.

The by-election for the state seat will see a straight fight between Abdul Aziz and trader Ng Chee Pang.

The opposition have boycotted the polls in order to press for electoral reforms.

The seat fell vacant following the death of BN incumbent Tengku Paris Tengku Razlan on Dec 27 last year.