Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam today outlined five reasons why the Barisan Nasional (BN) will retain the Machap state seat in the April 12 by-election.

The reasons are:

1) Machap is a BN stronghold
2) Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's people-friendly policies
3) Strong economic growth
4) Solidarity in BN
5) The late incumbent Poh Ah Tiam had served the constituency well

The by-election was called following Poh's death on March 15 due to kidney failure. In the 2004 general election Poh, who was also the Malacca MCA chairperson, defeated DAP's Liou Chen Kuang with a majority of 4,562 votes.

Meanwhile, Mohd Ali, who is also Malacca BN chairperson, said the state BN election machinery was mobilised today with more than 1,000 members going out to help their candidate.

The official launch of the BN election machinery will be carried out on Sunday at the Machap BN operations room.

"We have planned for ceramah functions at all levels and we have also drawn up several major events to be attended by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Not principled

On the BN candidate, Mohd Ali said he was still waiting for the name from MCA president Ong Ka Ting to be forwarded to the prime minister who is also the BN national chairperson.

The chief minister also took a swipe at the opposition.

He said the move by DAP to field a candidate in Machap clearly showed that the opposition did not have any principle because earlier they had boycotted the by-election for the Batu Talam state seat in Pahang on the ground that they were not convinced of the credibility of the Election Commission.

He said the opposition had run out of issues to highlight to gain the support of the voters.

"We elect a representative to serve the electorate, we have served the people, why should the people support the DAP?," he added.

Yesterday, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the party maintains its stand not to boycott seats that it had contested before.