KUCHING, July 29: The Sarawak government should concentrate on important things such as saving lives, getting its population vaccinated and economic recovery, instead of focusing on the State Election.
Raising her concerns, SUPP Central Women Section chairman Kho Teck Wan opined that the State Election should be held at a later date, and urged the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong to grant a special extension to the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly so the state government can continue to function until Covid-19 cases are under control.
“I urged our King to consider the circumstances in Sarawak and give special extension so our politicians and Sarawakians can continue to focus on other priorities.
“We have many other obvious reasons why the State Election should be delayed, such as daily cases in Kuching being at an all time high, coupled with the highly infectious Delta variant,” Kho said in a statement.
She stressed that any election campaign held without observing standard operating procedures (SOP) is a cluster in the making.
“Let’s allow the market a period of recovery before the election is held.
“I would like to urge the Election Commission to formulate the most stringent SOPs for election. Lower daily Covid-19 cases should not be the reason to loosen any SOPs for election,” she stressed.
Kho added that currently 58 per cent of Sarawak’s adult population are now fully vaccinated and the focus should be on getting at least 80 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.
Though vaccines may not prevent one from getting infected by Covid-19, she emphasised that statistics have shown that not only it does it reduce the severity of the disease and death rate, it will also prevent the collapse of the healthcare system. — DayakDaily
