THE national budget for next year will need to wow the people to persuade them to vote for Barisan Nasional (BN), Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan told Utusan Malaysia.

“The budget will be viewed by some as (Prime Minister) Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s budget or Umno and BN’s budget. As we are headed for elections, the budget must be well done,” he was quoted in an interview with the Malay daily.

Mohamad said a “wow factor” would give Umno and BN “mileage” in GE15.

He said that while Umno wanted elections to be held early to ride on BN’s strong performance in the Malacca and Johor elections, BN might be able to get more political mileage if polls were held after Budget 2023 is tabled, provided Ismail Sabri’s government crafted a good spending plan.

Ismail is an Umno vice-president and under pressure from his party leaders to call for a snap general election.

The prime minister has signed a memorandum of understanding with Pakatan Harapan (PH) pledging not to hold the event before July. PH has urged him not to call elections until anti-party hopping laws are passed. – June 14, 2022.