KUCHING, Dec 16 ― Some 1,485 police officers and personnel will be reporting for duty at 11 district police headquarters (IPD) as additional reinforcement to ensure the 12th Sarawak election this Saturday runs smoothly.
State police contingent management department head SAC Gilberd Philip Layang said the reinforcements are from the Sarawak contingent police headquarters; Kuching police training centre; General Operations Force Sarawak Brigade and the Sabah police contingent.
He said apart from ensuring the public’s safety while out voting, they would also ensure voters complied with Covid-19 standard operating procedures.
The IPDs involved are Serian, Meradong, Mukah, Saratok, Betong, Sri Aman, Simunjan, Bau, Kuching, Lundu and Samarahan.
“In the past, our focus was to ensure that the people feel safe to go and vote. However, this time around, we have another challenge, which is to curb the spread of Covid-19,” he said when addressing the reinforcement teams here before they are deployed to their respective work stations today.
On December 3, state police commissioner Datuk Aidi Ismail announced that a total of 5,522 police personnel will be on duty statewide for the upcoming polls.
According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,213,769 ordinary voters out of 1,252,014 registered voters were eligible to vote this Saturday. Of the total, 20,360 people were early voters and 17,885 individuals were postal voters. ― Bernama
