Election during floods? Not a good thing, says KJ

Holding a general election during the monsoon season will not be a wise move, according to Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

Speaking at a special interview session today, he listed three main reasons why the country should not have the election around the time it may face floods.

“By convention, we usually avoid holding an election during floods. Because we have to take into account several factors, including safety, health and human resources.

“Because we will need to deploy a huge number of human resources during the monsoon season to handle the temporary evacuation centres, to evacuate flood victims and to keep the rakyat safe.

“Secondly, from the aspect of facilities, many of the evacuation centres would be at schools, which are also usually used as polling centres,” he said.

Khairy was answering journalists’ questions on the Health Ministry’s view on calls to hold the 15th general election before the end of this year, which may coincide with the monsoon season.

From the public health aspect, the minister stressed that floods would usually see the spread of infectious and waterborne diseases, which would require intervention by the Health Ministry.

"Whenever floods happen, we see an increase in the number of infectious disease cases, and also waterborne diseases. All kinds of them, and these require MOH intervention.

"And these are on top of other cases (that MOH has to handle) like injuries, flu and fever.

"So, this is the MOH perspective on whether it is suitable to hold an election during the monsoon season," he said.

On Sept 17, BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi courted flak for saying the coalition is prepared to wade through floods if the 15th general election is held during the monsoon season.

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