KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 (Bernama) — The government’s plan to set up the Territorial Army in all parliamentary constituencies is not the Barisan Nasional’s (BN) strategy to gain postal votes, said Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Abdul Latif Ahmad.

He described the claim by certain groups that the setting up of the Territorial Army in every parliamentary constituency was to increase the postal votes for the BN as a ‘political sickness’ because such allegation was unfounded.
“As we all know, the Territorial Army comprises members of the public and are not military personnel. This means that they vote as normal people and not by post,” he told reporters after visiting the National Service Training Department (JLKN) headquarters, here, Wednesday.
On April 13, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had announced the establishment of one battalion of the Territorial Army in all the 22 parliamentary constituencies in an effort to strengthen the national defence system.
Ahmad Zahid had said that the force would consist of 300 men for each platoon comprising the various ethnic groups and the overall total was expected to reach 600,000 within the next five years.
Meanwhile, Abdul Latiff said the JLKN would create an alumni as part of the efforts to strengthen networking between former trainees of the National Service Training Programme.
— BERNAMA