KLANG: Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli says PAS Kelantan's offer to upgrade Pengkalan Chepa Sultan Ismail Petra Airport (LTSIP) to an international airport if Perikatan Nasional remains in charge of the state after the state election this Saturday (Aug 12) is something half-baked.
He said the matter of upgrading an airport to an international airport was under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, not something that can be promised by a party or state government.
"We have to understand that the matter of opening (the airport), 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 on Tuesday (Aug 11) night.
He referred to the statement of a Kelantan government exco who was recently reported to have said that by upgrading LTSIP as an international airport, it would facilitate the people to use direct flights to the destination they want to go to 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 in the future.
In the meantime, the PKR deputy president said the latest figures and findings obtained by his ministry showed the shifting support of Malay voters to Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional increasing compared to 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 see a big shift in the support of the Malay vote to Pakatan-Barisan in all states, except for Terengganu which is relatively slow," he said.
Polling day for state election in Selangor, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu and Negeri Sembilan will take place simultaneously on Saturday. - Bernama
