THE Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) in a press statement today revealed the initial findings of its monitoring in the 16th Sabah state election from Sept 21-26.
“Generally, the state election process was conducted in an orderly manner and in compliance with the election regulations and the Covid-19 prevention guidelines issued by the Election Commission of Malaysia,” it said.
According to Suhakam, candidates from the political parties were able to carry out their campaign activities either via door-to-door campaign, talks or live sessions via social media platform.
However, at some of the campaign activities, Suhakam observed that the crowd did not maintain physical distancing among themselves.
On media coverage, the Commission noted that mainstream media coverage was not equally distributed among the contesting political parties.
Adding on, it said, some of the voting centres were not disabled-friendly – the polling channels for older persons, persons with disabilities and pregnant women were not situated on the ground floor and they had to climb up the staircase.
Their plight was made worse with the drains around the route to the polling channels not covered, and some of the centres did not provide enough wheelchairs or had none to assist those in need of such facility.
Summing up, Suhakam said: “We will come up with a full report on the election monitoring including recommendations for improvement, and forward it to the Government for their consideration.” – Sept 27, 2020
