‘Pandemic election’ results likely won’t reflect people’s wishes, says PSB man

KUCHING: The upcoming state election would likely fail to reflect the people’s wishes as it would be held during the Covid-19 pandemic and prior to the implementation of Undi18, claimed George Young Si-Ricord Jr.

The Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Stakan pro tem chairman also claimed Covid-19 prevention standard operating procedures (SOPs) would prevent democratic practices during the election.

“Top that up with inclement weather that is normally associated with the year-end in this part of the world then we will have an election with very low turnout at the polling stations.

“And I am not even talking about how a December 2021 state election will, by purpose and design, discriminate against the Undi18 voters by excluding them from the election.

“All in all, we may be seeing election results that do not echo the wishes of the people of Sarawak,” he claimed in a statement.

He predicted that polling for the 12th state election would be in the third week of December.

According to him, this is based on the time taken to conclude the effectiveness of SOPs for the Melaka state election on Nov 20.

“On average it takes between five and six days from when someone is first infected before the symptoms appear.

“It would therefore be safe to conclude that the effectiveness of the SOPs in place for Melaka’s state election will only be known on Nov 25, at the earliest. In which case, the Election Commission (EC) will only make announcements about Sarawak’s 12SE after Nov 25,” he opined.

George questioned whether it is safe for Sarawak to hold its election due to the stillhigh number of Covid-19 cases, particularly involving Variants of Concern (VOC).

He pointed out that on Oct 30, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) revealed that 780 additional Variants of Concern (VOC) had been detected from the 782 Covid-19 positive cases sequenced in Sarawak as of Oct 8.

“This is despite the high rate of vaccination that Sarawak has achieved.

“What we can surmise from this is that new variants will continue to pop up. In addition, Sarawak’s Covid-19-related death statistics indicate that Sarawak is still very far from being out of the woods,” he said.

George added the election should not be held unless and until scientific data shows that it is 100 per cent safe.