KUALA LUMPUR:-Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said, the date to dissolve the parliament will be announced shortly to give way to the 15th General Election (GE15).
As the Vice-President of UMNO, Ismail said he had requested to give some time to decide on the date with UMNO President, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
“The president and I will decide the date but believe me it will not take a long time. I have heard it very clearly and all the top five leaders are here. Insya Allah, we will soon meet to discuss on GE15,” Ismail said.
The Prime Minister said that in his speech at the Launching of the Pemuda Barisan Nasional (BN) Machinery at the Titiwangsa Stadium today and assured 10,000 people at the event that he had listened to what is needed on the ground and is aware of the sentiment among party members including those from the component parties’ youth wing.
Also present were BN Chairman, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, his deputy Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and other two vice-presidents namely Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin and Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid and BN component party leaders.
Ismail then cited the lowering of the voting age or Undi18 that will see an increase in the number of eligible voters in GE15.
“How many young voters, Form 6 students or higher education institution students that we have reached out to win the GE15,” asked Ismail.
He said, the government could afford to take care of the welfare of the young groups via the implementation of several incentives including the “Program PerantiSiswa Keluarga Malaysia and the National Higher Education Fund loan (PTPTN) to M40 (M1) which had been increased from 75 to 100 percent.
Ismail urged the party leaders including Pemuda BN to control the war online, answer all kinds of allegations and attacks from the opposition towards BN and government via the social media.
The Prime Minister also stressed that the party before GE14 was unable to answer major issues raised by the opposition and this time they continue to defame the party leaders, BN and the government.
“When the Parliament is dissolved and the GE15 is held, we should win and more importantly when GE15 is held we are not able to win enough seats to form a government then we will return to be like before GE14,” Ismail said.
The Prime Minister said the BN leaders should go closer to the young voters by engaging with them to get their support. – Malaysia World News