SARAWAK opposition parties with links to peninsula-based parties fear they may not be able to call for reinforcements if the state polls are held during the Covid-19 pandemic.

They anticipate the strict health standard operating procedure will effectively lock out their counterparts from the peninsula in the event of a ballot.

The elections seem inevitable now following the decision of the special conference of the Malay rulers that see no reason to extend the emergency beyond August 1.

Against this backdrop, parties like DAP, PKR and PAS are rethinking their strategies and how to deploy their resources.

In past elections, their party men from the peninsula arrived in droves to help aggressively push its campaign machinery on the ground.

Barring campaign workers from out of state could also be one of the restrictions in the rules to make the elections safe, state Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Hamzah told The Malaysian Insight.

“If the pandemic could be addressed, the emergency not extended after August 1, the (automatic ) dissolution of state legislative assembly will happen on August 1 and the election must be held within 60 days,” the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu vice president said.

Sarawak is currently having an average of 500 Covid-19 cases daily and up to eight deaths a day.

The legislature automatically dissolved on June 6 but since the country is in a state of emergency and legislatures nationwide suspended, the dissolution was deferred to when the emergency is lifted.

PKR’s Dominique Ng said the entry SOP should be lifted for the election even if the pandemic is still there.

“(It) would be nasty and (a blow) below the belt if the SOP is retained,” Ng, PKR’s first assemblyman when he pulled off the historical win in the 2006 elections for the Padungan seat.

Ng, who quit PKR in disillusion in 2011 after his seat was traded to DAP, however, said he does not expect the entry SOP to be lifted.

“They are not above using that. The SOP (should not be) abused for political ends.”

Freedy Misid, who could run in the elections as a candidate for the local-based Parti Sarawak Bersatu, said he is unsure if the state could keep out campaign workers from outside the state but “professionally and logically” they should be barred from the elections.

“Malayan politicians should not interfere in our 12th state elections,” he said.

Voter Joseph Ramanair is also in favour of barring campaign workers from outside the state from the elections.

“Yes. They should and I hope they do it,” he said.

Nothing to worry about

However, Deputy Chief Minister James Masing said the opposition fears are all about nothing as the new norm means the old fashion way of campaigning, the big rallies and town hall meetings have been thrown out of the window.

Masing, who is also president of Parti Rakyat Sarawak, said there will be no campaigning in line with the ban on gatherings.

He believes elections will be called in October despite the threat of the monsoon but Universiti Malaya’s political watcher Awang Azman Awang Pawi on the other hand believes it will be in September.

Awang Azman said it would be best for the state’s ruling coalition, Gabungan Parti Sarawak to call for elections at the earliest possible opportunity as they are currently “on a good momentum” to win. – June 20, 2021.