Wed. - The Election Commission favours an early State election for
Sarawak and not at the end of the year.
Its chairman Datuk Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said adverse weather
conditions, which normally occurred at that time, could pose problems
to the commission.
"Otherwise (except
for bad weather), we do not have any other problems in conducting
the election," he said after a closed-door briefing for government
officers from Kuching and Samarahan Divisions who had been appointed
returning officers and assistant returning officers.
The five-year term
of the current State Legislative Assembly expires on Nov 18.
Sarawak currently has
861.377 registered voters based on the electoral rolls verified
on Dec 21,2000. There were 824,347 eligible voters for the last
State election in 1996.
Rashid said the Commission
was expected to complete the training in election procedures for
about 16,000 returning officers, assistant returning officers and
other support staff next month.
"We want to make
sure that they have enough training so that they can conduct the
election smoothly." he said, adding that EC had no problem
training them because they had acquired experience when running
the parliamentary election in 1999.
"It is only a
matter of refreshing them on the election procedures and laws."
He said the State Election
Office here had also held discussions with the security forces to
ensure that the election runs peacefully.
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