KUCHING: A total of 7,041 policemen will be deployed throughout the state for the 14th General Election (GE14).
According to State Police Commissioner Datuk Seri Amer Awal, of the number, a total of 4,866 senior police officers would start their duty on the nomination day (today) at 31 nomination centres involving 24 districts in Sarawak.
He said the affected police personnel had left for the assigned locations beginning yesterday morning to ensure a smooth nomination process.
“We have also prepared housing for 43 Light Strike Force (LSF) units, 38 district investigating teams and 32 special unit teams (for criminal issues) statewide to cope with any untoward situations during the general election period.
“(In fact,) theRoyal Malaysia Police Air Wing Unit will also be mobilised to monitor the situation,” said Amer at a press conference at Sarawak Contingent Police Headquarters (IPK) in Jalan Badruddin here yesterday.
Commenting on nomination day, he said police projected many political party supporters to throng areas categorised as ‘flash points’ and asked them to listen to instructions from the policemen on duty to avoid traffic congestion near the nomination centres.
Meanwhile, he said police had issued permits for political parties to hold talks at 16 venues, namely two each in Kuching and Dalat, nine in Padawan and one each in Saratok, Lawas and Kapit.
“We have asked the parties’ representatives to request the permits early so that the police can make arrangement for traffic control, ensure that the (venue and date of) talks will not clash with other parties and that the talks will take place as scheduled.
“Police will have no problem approving every permit application if all the rules are met,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Dato Dave Kumar said that the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 would be replaced by the Malaysian Election Offense Act 1954 during the election campaigning period.
According to him, the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 cannot be applied once the names of the candidates are announced by the Returning Officer on nomination day.
“This is why the police permit to hold public talks is compulsory,” Dev pointed out.
Some people, he added, have also questioned the need of the permit despite it not being a new requirement during the election period and are clearly stated under the Malaysian Election Offences Act 1954.
He added the permit is used by the police to ensure that no public talks will clash dates at the same or nearby locations among the political parties, which could cause massive traffic jams and disrupt peace.
“With the permit, we (police) can advise these political parties to either hold their talks earlier or on a later date,” said Dev, adding that the police would not ‘reject’ the applications of permit unnecessarily.
Also present was state Police Management Department chief SAC Datuk Zamani Tan Sri Hamdan.
