KUCHING, Oct 5 — Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen has urged Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg not to contemplate dissolving the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) to make way for the state election for the next six months.

While the country is now in the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chong opined that to hold a state election now is to put at risks of infection thousands of election workers and helpers and millions of Sarawakians.

“This is the time to reduce, as much as possible, gatherings, meetings and unnecessary official duties with human contact. To dissolve the State Assembly and have a state election now will be doing the contrary,” he said in a press statement yesterday.

He was commenting on a news report where Abang Johari was reported to have signalled during a Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) mini convention held in Sibu on Saturday that the state will be holding its election “any time from now” even as Malaysia faces a surge in Covid-19 cases.

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Chong, who is Stampin MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, noted that the Covid-19 pandemic was well under control in the country until the Sabah state election.

For the last three days, the number of new cases has been three-digit, with 260 new cases on last Thursday, 287 new cases on last Friday and 317 cases on Saturday.

In the case of Sabah, Chong said the Sabah state election was inevitable due to the “attempted coup” by former chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman to topple the Warisan-plus government.

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“As for Sarawak, the current term will only expire in June, 2021 and there is no risk of anyone toppling the GPS Government through any ‘backdoor exercise’. The current state government still has more than nine months to go before its term expires. Therefore, there is no necessity to rush the state into an election now.

Chong believed that under the recovery movement control order (RMCO), elections will surely favour the ruling parties, but in the interest and well-being of the people and thousands of government servants involved in running the elections, there is no necessity to rush into elections at this time. — Borneo Post Online