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KUALA LUMPUR – A by-election in Sabah in December and state elections for Sarawak next year are inevitable events, unless an emergency is declared for the country, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Saturday (October 31).
Amid concerns in Malaysia over holding elections during the current surge in Covid-19 cases, he said his government is bound by the federal Constitution and has no powers to stop the democracy process.
“If you ask me, there should be no elections now as Covid-19 cases are increasing. However, we cannot cancel it unless we declare a state of emergency,” Tan Sri Muhyiddin said in an unscheduled televised speech.
The Malaysian king last Sunday (October 25) rejected a proposal by the Perikatan Nasional government of Muhyiddin to declare a national emergency.
The opposition has accused the Prime Minister of pushing for an emergency to avoid a vote in Parliament against his 2021 Budget that could lead to the collapse of his eight-month government, due to lack of support from parliamentarians.
Muhyiddin holds a small two-seat majority, with 113 seats, in the 222-member parliament. But this majority has not been proven by a vote in the House.
The Batu Sapi parliamentary parliamentary elections in Sabah will take place on December 5 after a 13-day campaign period. The by-elections are called after the recent death of deputy Batu Sapi.
Sarawak, which holds its state elections every five years separately from Malaysia’s general elections, will hold its next elections in the middle of next year.
The five-year term of the Sarawak state assembly will end in June 2021 and elections must be held within 60 days, according to the Constitution.
Said Mr. Muhyiddin: “What can be done? That is what the Constitution dictates, so we are forced to have elections.”
Instead, he asked Malaysians in these two states to strictly follow health protocols, called SOPs or standard operating procedures in Malaysia, when conducting these surveys.
“Unless an emergency is declared under article 150 in Batu Sapi and Sarawak, then we can postpone both elections until the Covid-19 (pandemic) ends,” he said. “If the elections cannot be postponed for any reason, my plea to the voters in Batu Sapi and Sarawak is: be careful.
“Take care, follow standard operating procedures with full discipline when the elections come around,” Muhyiddin said.
The Malaysian public is against holding elections after a surge in infections since September, blamed in part for the two-week political campaign that preceded the Sabah state elections on September 26.
During the intense elections in Sabah, there was a free mix of political activists from all over Malaysia and voters from Sabah, holding large demonstrations and visiting from house to house.
“The head of the Election Commission had told me that many members of the EC staff are afraid to report to work at Batu Sapi for fear of contracting Covid-19,” Prime Minister Muhyiddin said.
Malaysia reported 799 new Covid-19 infections on Friday, with 466 or 58.3 percent of cases coming from the state of Sabah.
Except for Thursday’s figure, Malaysia has reported at least 700 cases per day in the past 14 days.
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