Najib remains tight lipped about polling date
KUALA LUMPUR: Although the ringgit and share market is showing promising results of late, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak remains tight lipped about the possible date to hold the next general election.
Najib, who is also the Umno president, told reporters that he was waiting for some sort of inspiration to realize the best time to hold the election.
"What am I waiting for, I don't know. I am waiting for some sort of spark or 'ilham' to indicate what is the best timing for us.
"As long as we do it within the ambit of the constitution which is not later by June, I think it will be alright. So let's see if we do it by June or make it earlier, we will see how things develop," Najib said, when asked why he still refused to divulge details about the possible election date, despite the positive economic indicators, upbeat stock market and strengthening ringgit.
Najib, who had earlier chaired the Umno Supreme Council meeting, said that he was satisfied and happy with the readiness and preparedness done by all the Umno and Barisan Nasional election machineries in the face of the impending election.
"Overall we are happy with the readiness of all the election machineries by all the component parties and Umno as compared to what is happening with the opposition who remains (in) disarray.
"When that happened, it would not instill confidence in the people of their capability to guarantee economy stability in the country nor their capability to transform the nation," he added, while hoping that the strong efforts by all the parties will be continued until the still unknown polling date.
Meanwhile, commenting on the recent meeting between the opposition leaders and the European Union ambassadors and what transpired, Najib said that there was nothing unusual for that to have happened, but he did find the comments made by former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad relatively odd.
"They have alleged that the system is unfair and rigged, when in fact, the system which we are practicing today is the same system that enabled Mahathir to be elected as the nation's premier for 22 years.
"Nothing much has change about the system except that it has been more transparent than it (has) ever been through the introduction of polling agents, counting agents as well as the indelible ink system.
"Hence, the chances of cheating is almost none so how can they say the election system is unfair," Najib said.
A puzzled Najib then asked why the opposition didn't raise any of those complaints when Mahathir was the prime minister, why did they wait until now.
"It is rather obvious that they want to use some foreign power to complain so that they could dispute the end result of the general election. They just want to create controversy," he added.