Sarawak polls: Anwar Ibrahim urges EC to be fair with election SOP

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Anwar (front row, fifth left) with other Sarawak PKR leaders at the launching of PKR Sarawak election machinery at Imperial Hotel, Miri today.

MIRI (Nov 20): Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged the Election Commission (EC) to discuss the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the upcoming Sarawak polls with all parties first to avoid unfairness.

He told a press conference after launching the PKR Sarawak election machinery at Imperial Hotel here today, that the implementation of the election SOP for Melaka was not reasonable, thus affecting PKR’s campaigning works.

“I think the SOP is unreasonable without discussion with the public and political parties. It is (unfairly) done with dual classes involving upper class and lower class,” he said.

For the sake of public health and safety to curb the Covid-19 infection, Anwar said he has no problem if the SOP for the upcoming Sarawak election would be more stringent compared to the Melaka polls.

However, he hoped that the EC should discuss the SOP first with all parties and ensure it would not favour or be relaxed for ‘certain persons’.

Meanwhile, on the party’s candidate for the upcoming state polls, Anwar said PKR Sarawak’s leadership is currently in the process of screening the candidate list.

He said there will be a combination of old and new faces, and the party central in general has agreed with the list proposed by the state party leadership.

On the overlapping seat issue, he said the party needed to further discuss the matter.

“There is not too much problem with Democratic Action Party (DAP) but we are still discussing it with Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB),” he said.

If the seat negotiations cannot come to an agreement, he said PKR should prepare to carry on with the election.

Touching on the PKR’s strategy for the upcoming state election, he said his team has given several priorities to be highlighted as the issues in Sarawak are different compared to Peninsular Malaysia.

Among several issues that will be focussing on would be basic amenities, combat corruption, logging activities and Native Customary Rights (NCR) land.

Among those present during the press conference were PKR Sarawak advisor Datuk Seri Habsah Harun, Miri MP Michael Teo and other party leaders.