Melaka campaign heats up as bigwigs show up

 

The parties seek to ensure that they fully cover every location, whether villages, housing estates or social activity centres, before polling day on Nov 20.

MELAKA: Campaigning in the state assembly elections, which entered the sixth day today, has brought out top leaders of the various parties to help their respective candidates, and featured tightly-packed schedules.

With just six days left before polling, the final stretch will be akin to a sprint as the parties and individuals who are contesting adopt a more aggressive approach, with some listing nothing fewer than 14 face-to-face programmes a day and this does not include the online campaign being mobilised by their party machinery.

The parties seek to ensure that they fully cover every location, whether villages, housing estates or social activity centres, before polling day on Nov 20.

The first week of campaigning had been quite slow and more focused on the use of social media as well as vehicles fitted with loudspeakers, besides a few small-scale face-to-face campaigns in accordance with the stipulated procedures (SOP).

Among the social activities were breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea events, visits to party operations rooms and district polling centres, meetings, prayers, meet-ups with residents and walkabouts at night markets.

No one, neither the young nor the veteran candidates, took the easy way out, not wanting to be seen as losers, although well aware that election campaigns can be very tiring, what with their programmes beginning early in the morning and not ending until way past midnight.

For that reason, the government’s decision to allow all parties, including independents, to air their portraits and biodata on RTM from tomorrow is such a relief for all the candidates.

Taking the SD route

Barisan Nasional has made it compulsory for its 28 candidates to each sign a statutory declaration (SD) preventing them from leaving the party after winning a seat, while Perikatan Nasional has made it mandatory for its candidates to sign a commitment to fighting corruption if they are given the mandate.

BN further strengthened its commitment by launching its manifesto on Wednesday, with Pakatan Harapan becoming the second party to do so the same day.

PN is set to announce its manifesto tomorrow while the minor Parti Perikatan India Muslim Nasional (IMAN), which is contesting the Machap Jaya seat, will do so next week. Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra), meanwhile, confirmed that it will not launch any manifesto and, instead, its candidates who are contesting the five state seats in Gadek, Paya Rumput, Pengkalan Batu, Duyong and Sungai Ramai would announce their own manifestos.

“If we contest half the state seats, surely we will announce (our manifesto), but we are contesting five seats only. So, no manifesto will be launched. Instead, the candidates will announce their own (manifestos) as part of their commitment to the areas they will be contesting in,” said party president Ibrahim Ali.

There is no doubt that the special SOP announced by the Election Commission on Nov 8 triggered unease, being seen as making things difficult for campaigning in extraordinary circumstances.

The Melaka state assembly has 28 seats. A total of 495,195 registered voters are eligible to vote on Nov 20. A minimum of 15 seats are needed for a simple majority, allowing the winning party to form a government. - FMT