KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — Kijal assemblyman Datuk Seri Ahmad Said said it was nothing out of the ordinary for certain parties to spread allegations of a sex tape, which purportedly involves him, simply to discredit him.

He, however, refused to comment on the issue, merely saying that the people behind the purported sex tape have had to resort to "desperate” measures just to ruin his reputation.

"It’s a normal thing. People have become desperate these days and funny things are happening.

"I don’t want to comment further,” he said in an interview with The Star.

According to the English daily, the issue of the sex tape was initially posted up on a blog before it was circulated online.

Ahmad Said has been embroiled in a political tiff with his successor Ahmad Razif after the Kemaman Umno division chief was forced to step down as mentri besar in May 2014.

Ahmad Said and two other state Umno assemblymen then quit the party, which resulted in the BN becoming a minority government in Terengganu for a brief 48 hours that ended only after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak intervened. The three rebels subsequently rejoined Umno.

Last March, Ahmad Said sought to table a motion of no-confidence against Ahmad Razif in the state assembly but was refused by Terengganu Speaker Datuk Mohd Zubir Embong.