THE Sarawak state elections will not use the Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) that was employed in Malacca, Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said.

“Sarawak has different circumstances and will use different SOP,” said the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Parliament) during the government’s winding-up debate on the Supply Bill 2022 at the committee stage today.

Malacca is in recovery phase 4 while Sarawak is phase 3, said Wan Junaidi.

The Santubong MP was responding to comments about how the election SOP for Malacca had curbed campaigning and deterred voter turnout.

Khoo Poay Tiong (Kota Melaka-PH) said that the Election Commission (EC) appeared “unprepared” for the Malacca elections, which took place on Saturday.

“EC called for a meeting at 3pm on Friday (eve of polling day) to inform the candidates that voters who are persons under investigation (PUI) or Covid-19 were required to register with the Ministry of Health before voting the next day.

“With just two hours’ notice, how could we inform PUI voters in time?” said Khoo.

Wan Junaidi agreed and said that he had recently met the Sarawak EC chief.

“He’s very experienced and I’m sure he will be able to handle it,” said Wan Junaidi.

The Sarawak legislative assembly was officially dissolved on November 3 after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong consented to the lifting of the emergency order for Sarawak.

State elections must be held within 60 days of the dissolution, by January 3.

The Election Commission will meet on Wednesday to set the dates for the Sarawak elections.

Under the EC and Health Ministry SOP for the Malacca polls, political parties were not allowed to hold ceramah, nightly talks or make house visits. – November 22, 2021.