KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Caretaker health minister Khairy Jamaluddin is asking for the chance to tie up some loose ends if he wins the contest for the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat this Saturday.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate, who is running in a Pakatan Harapan (PH) stronghold, told news portal Free Malaysia Today that he wants to ensure there are enough doctors and specialists in the public health sector.

"This needs to get done so that there are more permanent positions for contract doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals,” he was quoted saying in an interview published today.

Khairy was also quoted as saying that he wants to complete the draft Health White Paper begun under the last government led by Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

A White Paper is a government report that provides comprehensive information about an issue as well as recommendations for its resolution.

"This is my big dream of enhancing primary healthcare and making sure that hospitals are well equipped.

"We also need to have preventive strategies in place and table the Generational End Game Bill in Parliament to protect the future generation from smoking,” Khairy told the news portal.

The Generational End Game Bill is the unofficial name of the Control of Tobacco Products and Smoking Bill 2022 — which seeks to ban the use, possession and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products as well as vape products to those born after 2007.

On October 8, just before the dissolution of Parliament, Ismail Sabri had promised the Health Ministry to Khairy again if the latter and BN win the 15th general election.

Khairy, formerly the three-term Rembau MP, is making his debut election in Selangor.

He is up against five others: PH’s Datuk Ramanan Ramakrishnan, Mohd Ghazali Md Ramin from Perikatan Nasional, Akmal Yusoff from Pejuang, and two independent candidates Syed Razak Alsagoff and Nurhaslinda Basri.

Early voting is today and the rest of Malaysia aged 18 and above will head to the polls on November 19.