Knock, knock. Are you there, Election Commission?

 

From Ashraf Abdullah

Scientists around the world agree that Covid-19 will remain, long after the current pandemic is over. It will continue to exist in our midst. And from time to time, it will rear its ugly head. Pockets of society around the world will continue to be affected.

While humans strive to eradicate the virus, it will continue to mutate, becoming immune to vaccines and medicines. Keeping it at bay will be arduous. Making it disappear will be impossible.

As history has shown, beyond the coronavirus, this generation and future ones will see and live through other pandemics too.

To sit back and pray that it will all be over soon, and to wish that mankind has seen the nastiest of pandemics in the form of Covid-19, will be naivety at its worst.

I am no doomsayer. But there will be more.

We learnt many lessons from the Wuhan virus. And each of us – policymakers, captains of industries, civil service, or the layman, will have to adapt. Government departments and agencies must find new ways to carry out their everyday affairs.

Each time there is a pandemic in future, they cannot go on a shutdown mode.

And that brings me to the real reason why I am writing this article – to ask the Elections Commission what it has been doing since the Sabah elections in September 2020.

We have heard very little from the Commission, so much so people have begun to wonder what it has been doing to earn its keep. I would like to think, however, that the Commission has already drawn up a comprehensive strategy on how to hold elections in a pandemic situation or in other scenarios where people are unable to leave their homes or have to exercise extra precautions if they do.

This is a democratic country. Elections must be held for the people’s representatives to be elected and leaders to be appointed. An election is the very foundation of democracy. We cannot afford to hold off elections until a pandemic is over. We don’t know when that will be. Furthermore, there may be many other pandemics in future.

Worst, we may even have leaders who would love to go on without elections simply because their popularity has taken a dip. Unscrupulous politicians should never be allowed, under any circumstance, to take away the people’s right to vote. A government that mismanages must be punished through an election. That can only be done if the election is held.

I perfectly understand that to introduce new polling methods – online voting for example – amendments to existing laws, new Standard Operating Procedures are required. It is my fervent hope, therefore, that the Commission has brainstormed these changes and have their recommendations ready for the new prime minister who will soon take office.

There must be amendments to the Elections Act 1958 (revised 1970) empowering the Commission to depart from tradition and to hold an election differently when a situation warrants it. The infrastructure too must be in place.

Even if people are still required to go to polling stations to cast their votes, additional SOPs can keep them safe. If SOPs at mega vaccination centres make it safe for thousands to get inoculated against Covid-19 every day, surely similar or stricter SOPs can be introduced at polling centres.

Covid-19 or another future pandemic should never be an excuse for postponing elections. That’s a cardinal sin in a democracy.

I would like to think that the Commission is one that embraces dynamism and already has all these recommendations in place. It is just waiting for the right time to have them presented to the Government and communicated to the public.

If it hasn’t, then obviously, the Commission and its members have learnt nothing from history. - FMT

Ashraf Abdullah is the former group managing editor (News and Current Affairs), Media Prima TV Networks.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.