KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 — The Yang di-Pertuan Agong has consented to an Emergency in Gerik, Perak and Bugaya, Sabah and allow the postponement of by-elections in these two places.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he had apprised Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah of the need to delay the by-elections after a Cabinet meeting on December 4 which discussed the dangers of holding polls again during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Muhyiddin said the Sabah state election — which triggered Malaysia’s third and biggest wave of infections — have taught the government a lesson.

"Learning our lesson on how the spread of Covid-19 happened following the Sabah State Elections before this, the Cabinet is of the view that both by-elections should be avoided due to the factors of it being a threat public health, a threat on economic life, and the threat on public order,” Muhyiddin said in a statement on Facebook.

The prime minister said the King was satisfied of the urgency to declare an Emergency in Gerik and Bugaya to delay elections.

By-elections for the parliamentary constituency of Gerik and Bugaya, a state seat, were supposed to be held simultaneously on January 16. With the Emergency, these are now cancelled.

Muhyiddin said a new date will be determined later.

The by-elections were triggered by the deaths of Gerik MP Datuk Hasbullah Osman from Umno on November 16, and Bugaya assemblyman Manis Musa Mohd Darah from Parti Warisan Sabah a day later.