SUNGAI PETANI: Perikatan Nasional (PN) election director Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor has denied that the coalition is using money to entice members of Parliament from Umno.
Instead, Sanusi, who is also Kedah Menteri Besar, has claimed that the Umno MPs are willingly switching their support because of the push factor in the unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
"We are not desperate, it is just a common process in politics that is permissible by our law. Either it is luring or pushing, I can't say for sure but I believe the bigger factor is the push factor from within PH (Pakatan Harapan) that is pushing them out to join PN.
"We will welcome them with 'kompang', InshaAllah it will be soon. I do know that the push factor is the main reason.
"We are not luring them, we don't have anything to offer, we don't have the money to offer them, unlike them (the unity government) who are offering RM4 million to RM5 million (to lure for support (from PN lawmakers)," he told reporters after launching Andalusia Mosque's 10 years' anniversary celebration in Bandar Laguna Merbok here today.
Sanusi was responding to DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke's claims that PN was getting more desperate when the coalition admitted that they were attempting to woo Umno representatives to be part of the coalition.
Loke was reported as saying that the move also showed that PN was deliberately destabilising the country.
The Transport minister had said this when asked to respond to Pas president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang's disclosure that PN was attempting to woo Umno representatives to be part of the coalition.
Hadi, who is also Marang MP, was reported as saying that not all Umno leaders were backing BN's alliance with PH under the unity government banner.