Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau: Kenapa BN kalah? Kerana gambar besar Zambry!

Politicians and their supporters are fond of stringing up gigantic photos of leaders, with the belief that it will help boost their popularity.

MCPX

Apart from being an eyesore and waste of funds, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad warned that it could actually have the opposite effect.

The 83-year-old statesman considered this as one of the contributing factors to the defeat of Barisan Nasional in the April 7 Bukit Selambau and Bukit Gantang by-elections.

The ruling coalition lost to Pakatan Rakyat, which chalked up bigger margins, despite Mahathir hitting the campaign trail as well.

Conceding that his presence did little to alter the fortunes of BN, he said: "I went to Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau to campaign. We lost in both places, lost with bigger margins.

"The papers reported that an independent post-mortem will be conducted. I hope the people doing this will question me also," he said in his blog.

In Bukit Gantang, Mahathir said there were lots of banners and posters.

"A lot of them showed the portraits of the candidate. But quite a lot showed the picture of the menteri besar (Zambry Abd Kadir)."

According to the former Umno president of two decades, there a certain quarters in the party who belief that if pictures of politicians are displayed everywhere, people are going to like and support them.

"So, huge billboards have been put up with huge portraits of the ministers and menteri besar. To show that the ministers are close to the prime minister, portraits of the PM are shown close to the minister concerned," he said.