KUCHING, Nov 24: Airfares for trips back to Sarawak must be lowered three days before the polling date to maximise the voter turnout rate, opines Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.
He said the government should remove any obstacles that are keeping Sarawakians abroad from returning to vote, including sky-high air ticket prices.
“A quick search shows a one-way trip to Kuching can cost up to RM1,000. It is madness and the government must do something to allow our fellow Sarawakians to vote,” he said in a statement today.
On a related matter, he urged the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC) to come up with clear and specific standard operating procedures (SOP) to ensure all political parties can campaign fairly and safely.
Equal, fair airtime and coverage in national media including newspapers, television, and radio must also be guaranteed, he stressed.
These were the requests brought forward by Dr Yii seeing that nomination and polling dates have been decided and announced by EC today.
While nomination day falls on Dec 6, early polling day and polling day are respectively on Dec 14 and 18. There will be a 12-day campaign period after nomination until 11.59pm on Dec 17. — DayakDaily
