Hold elections by October to beat price crunch, says Asyraf

 

An Umno leader says people will find it difficult to go out to vote if elections are held during the monsoon season in November or December.

KOTA KINABALU: Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki says he expects the next general election to be held in September or October, before Malaysians get even more distressed by the rising cost of living.

“I predict that GE15 can happen as early as two months from now, because the government of the day is unstable, while the country cannot avoid inflation and rising costs of goods,” he said at a Barisan Nasional event here.

Asyraf said the elections should be held earlier than July next year (when the current Parliament’s term expires) so that the people could give their mandate to a new and more stable government which could resolve the country’s problems effectively.

Holding elections in November or December, the monsoon season, would be impossible as it would be difficult for people to go out to vote.

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“What’s happening internationally is out of our control, like the Russia-Ukraine war for example, which caused the prices of imported commodities like soybean to go up by 75%,” he said.

Asyraf also dismissed the notion that raising bank loan interest rates would discourage people from taking loans, thus reducing their financial burden.

Conversely, he said, it would cause people to come under more pressure as interest rates for housing and personal loan repayments would also go up.

“The best way to boost the economy is to bring investors into the country to set up operations here. But they’re afraid to invest in Malaysia right now because they fear that the government will change again,” he said.

Malaysia has had three governments in the four years since the 2018 general election which brought Pakatan Harapan to power. The PH government fell in March 2020, and was replaced by the Perikatan Nasional government of Muhyiddin Yassin. In turn, the PN government fell in mid-2020 to be replaced by a coalition government led by Ismail Sabri Yaakob. - FMT