PENANG, March 5 (Bernama) -- Penang Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said today the Barisan Nasional (BN) election machinery in the state needs to work harder to explain to the people about issues raised by the opposition in their attempt to win votes in Saturday's general election.

Admitting the campaigning atmosphere was getting more heated this time because the opposition was "cooking up stories and twisting facts", he said BN campaigners should intensify efforts to win over voters including fence sitters.

He said they should not take the opposition lightly but go all out to ensure BN candidates won on Saturday, especially in seats deemed 50-50.

Speaking at a press conference at Penang Gerakan's head office here, he described the opposition's claims that phantom voters would be widely used to assure BN victories in the election as "ghost stories".

He also said the huge turnouts at the opposition's ceramahs (political rallies) do not necessarily indicate they would translate into votes in their favour.

"If we look at 1995 and 1999, the situation (huge turnouts for opposition ceramahs) was the same but when the results came out, it was a different story," he said.

Koh, who is Acting Gerakan president and also Penang BN chief, said it was estimated between 10 and 25 per cent of the electorate (in Penang) had yet to make up their minds where to put their vote.

Based on past experience, they would only decide a day before or on polling day itself, he said.

"There are also others who have already decided which party they are going for but are showing no indication as such," he said, adding that swings if there were any, would be more pronounced in urban areas rather than in the heartland.

"This could be due to the lack of interaction between the elected representatives and the electorate (in urban areas)," he said.

Koh, who is contesting the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat, also apologised to the voters there for not being able to meet all of them because of the short campaigning period.

He said as the constituency was rather huge, it would be impossible for him to meet each and everyone of them in the 13 days of the campaigning period.'

However, the BN election machinery was at their disposal to solve any problems they may have, he said, adding that he was also not taking lightly his challenger, Prof Dr P.Ramasamy of the DAP.