Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak continued to attack the opposition for not keeping to its boycott of Sunday's Batu Talam by-election.

Calling it 'play-acting', he said the opposition are on the ground campaigning, giving talks and distributing phamplets in the area.

"The opposition are play-acting with politics. Initially they said they wanted to boycott while their machinery is on the ground either to instigate Batu Talam voters not to vote or to select the independent candidate," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

The deputy premier said based on letters and brochures he had obtained there are PAS leaders requesting their supporters in Batu Talam to deny Barisan Nasional's (BN) candidate a landslide victory.

"They said in the letters that they must assist the independent candidate so he will not lose his deposit. It seems that they are also not confident that the independent candidate can win. Their objective is to deny BN a huge majority.

"We want to inform Batu Talam voters that words from the opposition cannot be trusted. If they had said they wanted to boycott this election, their leaders should not be in Batu Talam. Instead, they are here. Their talks, machinery and brochures are circulated. This is an example of play-acting politics by the opposition," he added.

PAS talks

On PAS holding talks in the area recently, Najib said the police will monitor the activity and it is up to them to take action.

On BN's target of securing more than 3,000 votes for the polls, he said that would depend on the number of voters who would go out to cast their votes this Sunday.

"God willing, we will secure more than 3,000 votes. That is why the opposition tries to discourage voters from going to the polls. If the percentage of total voters drop to between 50 and 60 percent, they can deny us the huge majority that BN desires," he added.

The Batu Talam by-election is being held following the death of its BN assemblyman Tengku Paris Tengku Razlan on Dec 27.

It would see a contest between BN's Abdul Aziz Kiram and independent candidate Ng Chee Pang.

Meanwhile, commenting on the recent BBC Asia Today interview with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Najib said the government under Abdullah needed time to achieve the planned targets and objectives.

"The prime minister has expressed his desire to lead us, and we accept it favourably. We know in terms of planning, the five-year period is too short.

"So we need to look at a longer specific timeframe for all our programmes to move effectively and smoothly until the objectives and goals are realised," he said.

Speaking at the gathering earlier, Najib said the existence of national type schools should not be disputed by any parties as it was provided by the National Education Act.

He said although such schools had been defined as part of the national education, the opposition would always play up the issue, claiming that the Umno was trying to close them down.