Sabah election: Sabah govt prepared to assist in COVID-19 preventive measures

The Sabah state government is prepared to help the Election Commission (EC) in implementing COVID-19 preventive measures in the Sabah state election scheduled on Sept 26.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said his government would provide 10 million face masks and hand sanitizers for use during the state election apart from ensuring the standard operating procedure to prevent the pandemic is implemented smoothly.

"I have informed the Chief Minister's Department to manage the supply of face masks and hand sanitizers to voting centres and offices conducting the election.

"We must ensure all voters queue up according to the stipulated SOP and if there are voters who do not have face mask, the team on duty would provide them," he told reporters here today.

Earlier, Mohd Shafie launched the Micro Loan Scheme and the Small and Medium Industry Loan Scheme under the Sabah state government COVID-19 assistance package.

Yesterday, EC deputy chairman Dr Azmi Sharom said EC would be taking COVID-19 preventive measures as advised by the Health Ministry (MOH) and what was important was the collaboration between EC and the agencies involved to formulate and implement the necessary SOP.

Nomination Day for the 16th State Legislative Assembly of Sabah was set on Sept 12 while early voting would take place on Sept 22.

Asked on the preparation of Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) and its allies, United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (UPKO), Mohd Shafie who is also Warisan president sad the party was ready in terms of seat distribution and identifying winnable candidates.

"This is important for us is to determine the political direction, continuous development and progress in Sabah...what is important to us is political stability at state level...if there is no stability, it would not encourage foreign investors to come to Sabah," he said.

Commenting on the application for a judicial review against the decision to dissolve Sabah's assembly while the key dates for Sabah election had been announced, he said the matter was subject to the court and EC.

"I don't want to say anything about that... we will leave it to the court. EC has the power to announce the state election dates and the court has its power...similarly the TYT (Sabah Yang Dipertua Negeri), he too has his specific power," he said.

-- BERNAMA