MIRI – A short-term emergency order should be imposed in Sarawak to postpone the 12th state election.
In view of the emergence of the Omicron variant and inability of Undi18 voters to cast their ballots on December 18, Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii told the Dewan Rakyat that the state polls should be delayed.
Yii of the DAP said in his Facebook post that he had raised this as an urgent motion.
“One of the questions I asked the federal government during my emergency motion is whether the government is considering imposing a short-term emergency on Sarawak to delay the election in view of the fresh threat of the Omicron variant.
“This is after Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein made a statement that efforts to transition to the endemic phase have been paused for a while as the government looks to find out more about the new Covid-19 variant,” he said.
Yii also cited concerns raised by Dr Lam Sai Kit of Academy of Sciences Malaysia, saying that: “In Malaysia, the additional concern is the possible introduction of this variant into the country with the Sarawak election due next month.”
“So, a possible temporary short-term emergency may be beneficial for the government to really monitor the spread of Omicron more closely and to take additional precautionary actions and measures.
“In fact, we are not doing enough genomic sequencing in our country.
“Based on data released, Malaysia’s genomic sequencing to detect the variant is abysmal.
“Malaysia has only sequenced 0.1% of Covid-19 cases the past two weeks, or only one per 1,000 cases.
“This is in comparison to other countries such as Denmark that has 50%, or one per two cases, Sweden (36.7%), the United Kingdom (16.1%), Switzerland (11%), Australia (8%), and many others.
“We are even behind our neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Mexico, Pakistan, India, Colombia and Brazil.
“This is such a crucial metric in order to really have proper surveillance of any of the prevalence of such variants in our midst.
“Countries around the world are reporting on a daily basis new discoveries of such variants,” said Yii, adding that we need to fully understand the situation including the transmissibility, virulence and vaccine protection towards Omicron.
“It may be proper to lean on the conservative side and not introduce a possible unpredictable variable, i.e. a state-wide election which may run the risk of being a super-spreader event.”
He also spoke about the Election Commission’s (EC) announcement on the gazettement of Undi18 on December 15.
“The law will not apply for the upcoming Sarawak election.
“Then it could be beneficial for the election to be held instead during a time where our young voters can vote in the upcoming state election.
“The GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) government has always said they do not fear the youths’ votes and said that this issue should not be politicised, but if they are truly sincere, they will take the extra step to ensure that they are inclusive to them and not rush this election before the full implementation of Undi18.
“All their claims on youths are mere rhetoric if they are deliberately depriving them of their fundamental right to vote.
“It is important to give Sarawak youths the chance to vote in the elections, and the future of the state and country should also be the responsibility of young Sarawakians and Malaysians.
“We actually had the time as the emergency declaration in Sarawak was only supposed to end in February 2022.
“That will give us enough time to evaluate and monitor the full impact of Covid-19 during the Melaka election and the emergence of this new variant of concern before deciding on having an election of our own.
“This will also give time for EC to come up with innovative ways and reforms including absentee voting or postal voting for the upcoming state election,” he said.
Nomination day for the state election is on December 6 and polling is set on December 18. – The Vibes, December 3, 2021
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