SEMENYIH, Feb 26 — The Barisan Nasional (BN) hardly held any ceramah when it was in government, but it would appear that its politicians are changing their minds on the necessity of political speeches on the election campaign trail.

"A mega ceramah is always necessary,” Zakaria Hanafi, the BN candidate for the Semenyih by-election, told reporters today outside the multipurpose hall of Battalion 4 of the General Operations Force here, which is being used as the polling centre for early voting.

The 58-year-old did not elaborate on the reason, but indicated that the BN would be organising a major one soon as the clock counts down to Polling Day this Saturday.

"We will have our ceramah and maybe Tok Guru will attend representing PAS,” he said, referring to PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

"As for our side, Tok Mat will be there. As for the place and time I’ll let everyone know soon,” he added, referring to acting Umno president and BN chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

Zakaria said he had covered 80 per cent of the Selangor state constituency to date and hoped to complete the remaining 20 per cent in the next remaining three days. Under the law, campaigning must stop by midnight before Polling Day.

Zakaria is up against engineer Muhammad Aiman Zainali from Pakatan Harapan, Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul and independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng in the by-election triggered by the death of Bakhtiar Mohd Nor from heart attack on January 11.

As at 9am today, 11 per cent of the 951 who qualify for early voting had cast their ballots.

The rest of Semenyih will vote on March 2.