Give airtime to candidates, parties during Melaka state election, MP says

THE call for state election in Melaka has been ill-thought out and clearly shows a lack of thinking through of the consequences of calling for an election, said Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah.

When the then-Chief Minister Datuk Seri Utama Sulaiman Md Ali gave the letter to the Melaka Yang Di-Pertua Negeri Tun Dr Mohd Ali Rustam to dissolve the state assembly, there was no proper discussion to mitigate the consequences of dealing with COVID-19, she added.

“While it may be the right and legal approach, more thought could have been given to consider the possible spread of the virus and hence more effective standard operating procedures (SOPs) could have been planned before the dissolution of the state assembly,” Maria pointed out.

“As a result, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin came up with limited SOPs which only covers pre- and campaign periods but neglected to give a comprehensive strategy on how to conduct the elections and voting with the least exposure to the virus, if that is what he is so concerned about.”

According to Maria, Khairy’s immediate reaction was only to announce the curbing of political gatherings, house-to-house campaigns and a blanket ban on all “activities of gathering or social gathering”.

“But what about when people gather at the polling stations? What are the measures made to ensure social distancing is observed? What are the alternative measures to reduce voters coming to the polling station?

“Is the Health Minister going to tell us that his role and responsibilities stop outside the polling station and the rest is up to the Election Commission? 

“Incomplete announcements usually tend to result in confusing follow-up instructions,” Maria remarked.

According to Maria, one can only deduce that Khairy was making a political decision, which is to end all political campaigns rather than coming up with wholistic and rational SOPs for the election, be it state or national.

“Is this present Government so afraid of people reaching out to the Melaka voters, or they are in fact afraid of the voters? Or is this a plan to reduce and frustrate voters’ turnout?” she asked.

Maria went on to remark that there are serious consequences in the announcement made by the Health Minister as outreach to the voters is severely curbed, and insufficient time is given to candidates to set up their alternative outreach to their voters.

Maria also warned that voters are disenfranchised if they do not know who their candidates are, and only digital marketing-savvy candidates would be able to reach their voters, thus presenting an unfair advantage during these unprecedented times.

“There was also no mention of candidates’ or political parties’ access to the media and airtime to profess their manifesto,” she added.

In view of the upcoming state election in Melaka, Maria strongly urged the Government to do the following:

  1. Allow daily prime and off-prime airtime to all candidates on all television and radio stations. These should include (but are not limited to) announcement of their manifestos, debates among candidates and aired online dialogues with voters;
  2. Allow candidates to advertise their campaigns and election manifesto for free on all TVs and radio stations;
  3. Allow candidates to use mobile vans to announce their manifestos and their campaign messages to voters;
  4. Allow voters to change their voting status to mail-in votes or postal votes. This can be done at their nearest post office or online; and
  5. Set the SOPs during polling day so that voters have more confidence to come out to vote. – Oct 25, 2021

 

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