SPAOH: The upcoming landas (monsoon) season and the possibility of the emergence of new Covid-19 variants are the main reasons why the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government prefers to hold the 12th state election now.
Such a decision was reached following extensive consultation and deliberation with the appropriate authorities.
This was said by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas after another session of meeting with Bukit Saban PBB grassroots leaders and committee members here on Sunday (Nov 7).
Uggah added that the opposition’s frequent claim that the government insisted on holding the election now because it feared the Undi18 voters was pure propaganda to cast the government in a bad light because there is no guarantee that all of them will be anti GPS government in disposition.
The Bukit Saban assemblyman also pointed out that the next landas season is expected in January and February next year.
“Holding the election during the rainy period will be a herculean task when widespread flooding is possible,” he said, adding that the state election also could not wait for the Covid-19 situation to improve.
“We have successfully vaccinated 90 per cent of the state-qualified adult population, and we are currently carrying out our adolescent vaccination and booster shot programmes.
“If in September we had the highest number of cases in the country for a number of days (for example, 3,200 cases on Sept 7; 4,709 cases on Sept 15 and 2,358 cases on Sept 28), our cases now range between 400 and 500 cases daily.
“The spikes were and continued to be caused by the highly contagious Delta Variant, thus, there is no guarantee that a new, more dangerous variant will not emerge in the future,” he added.
Nevertheless, he reminded the public to always adhere to the Health Ministry (MoH)’s standard operating procedures (SOPs).
“While we are excited about the election, we must not let our guard down.
“The Health Ministry and the Election Commission (EC) will develop the SOPs for the purpose of the election,” he revealed.
On the other hand, Uggah emphasised that, among other things, no house-to-house campaigning or visits were permitted as per Melaka state election SOPs.
As a result, he stated that grassroots leaders and party machinery would be critical in keeping party members united and supportive of all GPS candidates.
“We will have to run our campaigns primarily through social media, posters, and mobile messages,” he said.
He expressed his belief that his seat (Bukit Saban) would become a GPS fortress, and that voting for the GPS was a vote for continued development, political stability, and a better future for Sarawakians.
