PUTRAJAYA: The Ministry of Health (MoH) has recommended that no election be held for the time being, said its director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
However, he said, if the election could not be avoided, in following the Federal Constitution, it would hold a discussion with the Election Commission (EC) to look into different means of conducting the election.
“(Firstly), no cross-border and no cross-district (travel), and no ‘balik kampung’ for the election. Secondly, no (mass) gatherings, and thirdly, no house-to-house visits. These are the three main issues that we need to discuss with the EC, and whether we can implement the use of postal votes and so on. We can continue to discuss with the EC to improve the situation.
“As far as the MOH is concerned, we only give recommendations. If it cannot be avoided, you still have to do the election, under the Constitution, then we have to look into the SOP (standard operating procedure) on how we can conduct the election and minimise infection.
“Even though the SOP is available, more importantly is compliance with the SOP. I think we have seen and learned this from Sabah (election). We hope we don’t need to repeat the consequences of an election in other states,” he said at a press conference on the update of Covid-19 at the ministry, here, today. -Bernama
More to come
