PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli has launched a petition to protest elections during the monsoon season.

He urged the people to order the government to choose life over power.

“Only the people can send a signal that they want politicians to concentrate on the floods, not chase positions by way of an election,” Rafizi wrote in the petition.

“Sign this petition and share it with as many people as possible. Thousands of voices will be heard by the politicians.”

The petition was uploaded yesterday. As of 9.43am, it has received 5,687 of the target 7,500 signatures.

Barisan Nasional politicians have supported of its chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s call for elections this year as the monsoon season rolls in.

The Met Department has warned of flooding in various places in November.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is under immense pressure from his party, Umno to dissolve parliament.

The opposition is opposed to the idea, accusing Zahid of being power hungry.

Youth party Muda staged a “Lives Before Elections” protest last week outside the Sogo shopping complex in Kuala Lumpur.

Election Commission chairman Abdul Ghani Salleh recently said that the elections will cost RM1.1 billion.

The addition of some five million new voters into the electoral roll due to automatic voter registration is the main driver of the surge (in cost), he said.

“This is more than double the estimated RM500 million spent on the 2018 general election, and almost triple the RM400 million spent in (2014) general election.”

Rafizi said the money should instead by used for flood relief.

“Thousands of civil servants will have to be on duty (during the elections) when they should be volunteering to help during the floods,” he said.

Rafizi, however, has also come under fire from Umno supreme council member Puad Zarkashi for continuing his Ayuh Malaysia campaign.

Puad had accused Rafizi of also “being willing to wade through floodwaters for the sake of power”.

Puad’s comments were in response to a Rafizi Facebook in which he said the Ayuh Malaysia truck would continue campaigning despite the possibility of flash floods – September 28, 2022.