KUCHING: Sarawak will wait for the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah whether to proceed with the state election or otherwise, soon after the Emergency Order is lifted.<\/p>\n
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said\u00a0although the emergency was not likely to be extended after Aug 1 following the federal government\u2019s decision that it would not advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for an extension, there were three things that needed to be considered.
\n\u201cOne\u00a0is the COVID-19 situation, whether our COVID situation has\u00a0improved based on the figures. Two\u00a0is whether the Election Commission (EC) has finalised the\u00a0SOP\u00a0(standard operation procedure) in that sort of situation.
\n“Three, as far as we are concerned, health is more important. We do not want that to be the cause of this (worsening situation) as what had happened in Sabah,” he told reporters after officiating at the launch of the Orang Ulu Chamber of\u00a0Commerce and Industries (OUCCI) here today.
\nHe was asked whether the state election would be held soon after the Emergency Order has\u00a0been lifted.
\nAbang Johari said on the\u00a0other hand, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) which he led\u00a0as the present Sarawak government would also need a new mandate from the people in order to continue leading the state.<\/p>\n
He said it would now be up to\u00a0the strategic agencies such as the Ministry of Health (MOH) and EC to weigh all the factors.
\n“So, just wait for what happens between one and two weeks. If the emergency ends on Aug\u00a01, then within 60 days, the\u00a0election needs to be held but we must make sure that the situation is conducive. In other words, there is improvement in our COVID-19 situation or the people will be scared to come out to vote,” he added.
\nAsked on the status of the State Legislative Assembly, the Chief Minister said under the emergency, it would still be functioning as consented by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
\n“We will\u00a0see what happens\u00a0between now and Aug\u00a01 because the power is with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to decide whether to extend the emergency or not,” he added.
\nMeanwhile, Sarawak State Assembly Deputy\u00a0Speaker, Datuk Gerawat Gala said the state election could be deferred again should the Yang di-Pertuan Agong decide\u00a0to extend the Emergency Order only in Sarawak after Aug 1.
\nHe said although the term of\u00a0the assembly had expired on June 6 this year, the Emergency Order had allowed for the continuation of the term during the emergency period.
\n\u201cOnly if the\u00a0Yang di-Pertuan\u00a0Agong consents to the State Assembly be dissolved\u00a0and there is no continuation of the emergency and no declaration of it for Sarawak, it means that\u00a0the State Assembly, according to the constitution, is dissolved and a state election should be held within 60 days.\u201d said.
\nAccording to him, the State Assembly would still have to wait for details of the ordinances during the emergency that had been revoked on July 21 as revealed by\u00a0Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Department (Parliament and Law), Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan yesterday.
\n\u201cWe have to wait for clarification (on the revoked ordinances). If these were revoked on July 21, when is\u00a0the effective date is\u00a0another issue,\u201d he said.
\nYesterday, Takiyuddin told the Dewan Rakyat that the government had\u00a0decided that it would not advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to proclaim an extension of the ongoing emergency after its scheduled end on Aug 1. He also said that\u00a0all the emergency ordinances promulgated this year had\u00a0been revoked since July 21.
\n— BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUCHING: Sarawak will wait for the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah whether to proceed with the state election or otherwise, soon after the Emergency Order is lifted. Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said\u00a0although the emergency was not likely to be extended after Aug 1 following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5500,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5498\/revisions\/5500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}