BN confident of 145 federal seats in GE13

 

(The Malaysian Insider) – The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) is confident of winning at least 145 parliamentary seats in Election 2013, including recapturing several Umno seats lost in 2008, say sources.

The Malaysian Insider understands that BN’s projections are about 10 seats above surveys done by Malaysian intelligence agencies, which say the ruling coalition is only sure of 135 seats, five below the 140 won in Election 2008. BN now has 136 seats in the 222-seat Parliament.

“We can win at least 145 seats according to briefings made to the leadership,” a BN source told The Malaysian Insider.

The number is still below the key two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat that BN has enjoyed until the elections in March 2008, and used to push key laws without support from the opposition bench.

BN will need to win 148 seats to have the super-majority in the coming elections which must be called by April 28.

It is learnt Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the BN chairman who is bidding for his first personal mandate, is confident of winning back such seats as Parit Buntar, Bukit Gantang and Kuala Selangor, which were all lost with wafer-thin majorities.

“PM Najib has expressed confidence that we can win in most of the seats we had lost as they are all Umno seats,” said another source, who attended a briefing recently.

BN’s historic losses of the parliamentary super-majority and four states in Election 2008 were widely blamed on former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who resigned in April 2009 in favour of Najib.

Since then, Najib has introduced a slew of initiatives and has promised a slate of “winnable candidates” to win over support for BN, which has ruled since independence as the three-party Alliance before enlarging itself to include other parties in 1974 and changing its name.

Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/bn-confident-of-145-federal-seats-in-ge13/