KLANG, Aug 8 —Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said PAS Kelantan’s offer to upgrade Pengkalan Chepa Sultan Ismail Petra Airport to an international airport if Perikatan Nasional (PN) remains in charge of the state after the state election this Saturday is something half-baked.
He said the matter of upgrading an airport to an international airport is under the jurisdiction of the federal government and not something that can be promised by a party or state government.
“We have to understand that the matter of opening the airport and of granting landing rights, of upgrading it to become an international or regional airport, all of that is under the jurisdiction of the federal government,” he said during a Madani Tour ceramah in the Sementa state constituency. near here.
He referred to a statement by a Kelantan state executive councillor who was recently reported to have said that by upgrading Pengkalan Chepa Sultan Ismail Petra Airport to an international airport, it will allow the people to have direct flights to their destinations without having to go to Kuala Lumpur first.
Rafizi said he believed the promise was made to attract support in conjunction with the state election and in the end would be used as an excuse to blame the federal government if the matter could not be implemented by the PAS government, if they continued to govern Kelantan.
Meanwhile, PKR deputy president said the latest figures and findings obtained by his ministry showed the shifting support of Malay voters to Pakatan Harapan (Harapan) and Barisan Nasional (BN) was higher than when compared with when the election campaign in the six states began.
“At the beginning of the election campaign we expected the competition to be much fiercer but now we can see a big shift in the support of Malay voters to the Harapan-BN alliance in all states, except for Terengganu which hass been relatively slow.”
Polling day for state election in Selangor, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu and Negeri Sembilan will take place simultaneously on Saturday.
— Bernama
