BARISAN Nasional faces the risk of seeing its hardcore supporters boycotting the coming by-elections for the Pulai parliamentary seat and Simpang Jeram state seat, says Umno vice-president Khaled Nordin.

According to Utusan Malaysia, Khaled admitted that there were a number of BN supporters who still could not accept the coalition being allies with Pakatan Harapan.

He said it is now up to BN’s election machinery to explain why and convince its supporters to vote for PH’s candidates come polling day on Sept 9.

“When hardcore supporters see that BN is not contesting in the by-elections, they might not know who to support. We have to handle this and we can’t take it lightly.

“Therefore, we believe that when supporters see party leaders working with (their PH counterparts) and supporting the PH candidates, they will follow suit.

“There are some (grassroot members) who won’t budge, but to me, the reality is we have to accept that our supporters are still confused as to why we need to work with PH,” said the Johor Umno chief.