Pas claims BN wants Kelantan for its natural gas wells

Barisan Nasional's desperation to recapture Kelantan was motivated by its desire to take over the natural gas wells before they are operational, Pas vice-president Datuk Husam Musa claimed today. Husam, in his final press conference before polling day, said the joint development authority with Thailand was a known public fact and the state has 13 trillion cubic metres gas reserves which can last seven generations. He said projected royalty to the Kelantan Government would amount to RM121 trillion over 500 years if five per cent were paid out of the 50 per cent Malaysian portion based on current prices. He claimed at least six gas wells outside the Kelantan shores of Pantai Bachok and Pengkalan Chepa have been confirmed by Petronas and were scheduled to start operations by 2009. Husam, however, would not say whether there has been negotiations with Petronas but added that they will have one after the election. On outstation voters, Husam said his network revealed that as of today, 21,000 people have registered with the Umno headquarters at the Putra World Trade Centre and they will start their journey home at 9am this morning from Bukit Jalil. Husam raised his concerns over Umno deputy youth chief Khairy Jamaludin's statement that 80,000 voters would be returning, claiming that 60,000 “overlapping voters” from army personnel also listed as civilian voters. “Pas will monitor them closely and will put up banners on the road leading to Kelantan in the hopes they will repent,” he said. To prevent double balloting, Husam said the party will send the list to polling centres to be checked manually by their polling agents for overlapping cases. "If these voters can be stopped through legal means, we are confident the risk of zombie or clone voters will be minimised," he said. He said Pas believed it had an edge over BN in Kelantan and claimed it was leading in most of state and 10 parliament seats. Husam said BN had listed seven state seats as black (impenetrable), six black/grey (Pas leading highly) and 13 seats as grey (Pas leading), while for parliament, two were black, two black grey and six gray seats. He was also optimistic on Pas' chances in Kedah and Terengganu. "In Terengganu, Umno knows that it will lose," said Husam, citing non-delivery of promises and internal split as reasons. Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thursday/NewsBreak/20080306170125/Article/index_html