The Malaysian Insight

THE government must announce the date of the next general election six months in advance, so that everyone can prepare for it, said Tumpat MP Che Abdullah Mat Nawi.

“Political parties need to make more preparations due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said during the supply bill 2022 committee stage debate today.

The PAS lawmaker said the recent Malacca elections provided different insights on how polls should be conducted during a pandemic.

“As such, I want the government to explain if there will be improvements to the election process, ie nominations, campaigning and voting,” said Che Abdullah.

“I also want to know the percentage of young voters casting their ballot in the Malacca elections,” he said.

According to Che Abdullah, there were still no noticeable voter education programmes in progress, although the government is planning to implement automatic voter registration next year.

He is one of several lawmakers – such as Johari Abdul (Sg Petani-PH) and Teresa Kok (Seputeh-PH) – who have raised doubts about the new SOPs that were used in the Malacca elections.

According to Kok, the new SOPs, that barred all forms of physical campaigning, affected turnout drastically, from 85.5% in the 2018 general election to just 64.5% last weekend.

As a result, although Barisan Nasional only obtained 38% of the votes cast on Saturday, it managed to win 21 out of 28 state seats. In the 2018 elections, BN won 37.5% of the votes cast but only won 13 seats in the state.

The Dewan Rakyat is currently debating the Prime Minister’s Department’s budget for next year. – November 22, 2021.