Dense clouds in rural northern Sarawak as the landas season gets into full swing.
MIRI: The Election Commission (EC) has, in its meetings with state government leaders, said it was worried about the safety of helicopter flights into remote Sarawak if the 12th State Election were to be organised now.
Currently, the state faced constant storms with torrential rain.
Telang Usan state assemblyman Dennis Ngau confirmed that the EC had brought up the issue of bad weather, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Yes, the EC has expressed worries about the safety of helicopter flights in bad weather.
"The landas season (monsoon season) is here and the issue of helicopter flights into the interior is a worry.
"The EC needs to use helicopters to fly into the remote polling stations to facilitate the state election process. The constant rain and dense and low clouds will affect visibility," he said.
Ngau said there were numerous polling stations that could only be reached by flight.
The ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government is expected to call for an early state election in November.
Talks are that the GPS will dissolve the state assembly during its sitting from Nov 9 to 18.
The current state assembly term automatically ends in June next year.
Several political parties and social community groups have called on the GPS not to call for state elections at this time of bad weather and Covid-19 pandemic.
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