A PARTI Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) vice president has slammed the Election Commission over what he claimed was a long delay over deciding on the date of the special meeting on the 12th Sarawak state election.

PBB’s Abdul Karim Hamzah asked: “Why does it take the EC three weeks to decide on the date of the meeting?”

EC secretary Ikmalrudin Ishak, in a statement yesterday, had said the meeting in Kuching would be held on November 24, and chaired by its chairman Abdul Ghani Salleh.

Karim, who is also the state’s tourism, arts and culture minister, asked why the EC can’t adopt its usual norm after it had been informed of the lifting of the emergency by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong and the automatic dissolution of the state assembly on November 3.

“Their practice in the past was to have the meeting within a week.”

The meeting normally decides the date of the Election Writ, for nomination day, polling day, the electoral roll to be used and other preparations to hold the election.

“I am baffled now why it takes them three weeks.”

Karim said the EC would probably use the Malacca state election as an excuse as to why it could not hold the meeting earlier.

“To me, that would not be a good excuse. What if there are four or five states having their elections simultaneously?

He said, looking at the timeline, “only December is left” to have the election.

“Now, it does not matter if there is a flood, we have to have it.”

Karim, who has been the Asajaya assemblyman for four terms, will likely defend his Malay-majority seat in coastal Samarahan in the coming election.

He inherited the seat from former chief minister, and now Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud, who held the seat for two terms – from the time the seat was created in 1991 to 2001. – November 13, 2021.