JOHOR BARU: Political parties must abide by the standard operating procedure (SOP) announced by the Election Commission (EC) for the state polls as this will help reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmissions, say Johoreans.
They also hope that the authorities will keep a close eye on campaign activities to ensure the SOP is adhered to at all times.
Businesswoman Chua Kim Song, 45, said political parties should make it compulsory for those attending their ceramah to take a Covid-19 test.
“Limiting the number of participants to 100 people is not enough as that is still a huge number.
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“If one or two people have Covid-19, they can easily spread it to the rest and to the community at large.
“The organisers should have all of their participants take a Covid-19 test, especially since self-test kits are easily available these days,” she said in an interview.
On the SOP for voters on polling day, Chua said the measures were sufficient to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but this also depends on making sure everyone sticks to it.
“I think the SOP is good enough, but the important thing is for voters to follow it and the authorities to monitor the situation,” she added.
Trader S. Sumathi, 49, said the public must be vigilant.
“The number of Covid-19 cases is rising, especially with the Omicron variant, and we need to be very careful to ensure this election will not cause more clusters to emerge,” she said.
University student Muhammad Hariz Abu Bakar, 21, who is a first-time voter, said the authorities and organisers of political events or ceramah must monitor the crowd constantly.
“For me, a gathering of 100 is a reasonable number of people for an event. But the organisers need to make sure that the number of participants does not go beyond that.
“They must also make sure that the participants wear face masks and maintain physical distancing,” he said.
The EC announced on Friday that ceramah, talks, physical campaigning and house-to-house visits will be allowed throughout the 14-day campaign period for the Johor state election.
However, ceramah and campaigns will only be allowed at party offices and official operation rooms with participation limited to 100 people.
As for house-to-house visits, participation must not exceed five people who will also not be allowed to enter homes or meet the occupants.
Meanwhile, some political parties are hopeful that the EC will allow campaigning activities, especially ceramah, to go on until 11pm.
Johor Pakatan Harapan chairman Aminolhuda Hassan said the 10pm cut-off time is too early for ceramah to end.
“The Muslims will need to go for prayers at about 8.30pm and the earliest we can start our events would be about 9.30pm.
“If we have to end it by 10pm, we will only have about half an hour to carry out the event. I hope they can allow us to organise the ceramah at least until 11pm,” he said.
However, Aminolhuda, who is also Johor Parti Amanah Negara chief, thanked the EC for allowing the parties to carry out physical campaigning activities.
Johor Perikatan Nasional information chief Mohd Solihan Badri also said ceramah and talks should be allowed to go on to at least 11pm.
“We need to make way for people to perform their prayers and ending the ceramah at 10pm is not ideal.
“I also hope the EC will still allow people to listen to the ceramah outside the event’s premises.
“We will abide by the maximum 100 participant limit for the events, but I hope that those who want to listen from outside the event space can be allowed as well,” he said.
Johor Umno secretary Samsolbahari Jamali said the party would abide by the SOP issued by the Election Commission.
“However, the most important thing is for everyone to do their part to keep themselves safe,” he said.