GE14: Over 500 cops to be on duty in Pekan

PEKAN: A total of 515 officers and members of the Royal Malaysia Police will be deployed to control situation in the Pekan parliamentary constituency throughout the 14th General Election (GE14).

Pekan district police chief Supt Amran Sidek said police were fully prepared to safeguard security in 56 polling stations and 171 polling channels in the parliamentary constituency.

He said though there were no ‘hot spots’ identified in Pekan, this was not a time for the police to rest on their laurels as any eventuality including fights could happen.

“Security control will also be carried out according to needs and manpower available to ensure that voters in every area could go out to vote without fearing for their personal safety. We are 99.9 per cent ready to face the GE, right from nomination day, early voting, polling day and the following days,” he told reporters at the district police headquarters here yesterday.

Amran hoped that party supporters would act maturely and would not create problems which could lead to brawls during the election period.

“We will be calling all candidates and representatives of the agencies for a briefing on the dos and don’ts to be observed so that no legal action will be taken against them,” he said.

Pekan parliamentary constituency is the home constituency of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and the GE14 will likely see a threecornered fight as PAS and Pakatan Harapan had expressed their interest to contest there.

As at Dec 31 there were 89,076 registered voters comprising 78,385 Malays, 1,788 Chinese, 737 Indians and 8,166 others, in the Pekan parliamentary constituency which includes the four state seats of Pulau Manis, Peramu Jaya, Bebar and Chini. — Bernama