Press Digest - EC contacts polling centres in preparation for GE14

THE Election Commission (EC) said it is requesting local councils and schools for facilities to be used and manpower to help in the coming polls, thus indicating the 14th general election is near.
According to a report in Sin Chew Daily today, EC secretary Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh confirmed that the Besut District Council had, on Nov 23, written to all schools in the district that it intends to use as polling centres to get their facilities ready as well as identify staff to work as election workers.
In the letter, the council requested that schools submit the list of election workers they identified to the EC latest by Dec 8.
With this development, political observers believe Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak will call a snap election as early as next April and not later than the end of September.
Although Najib can wait until 2018 when the current Parliament reaches its full term to call for GE14, he had hinted strongly at the just concluded Umno general assembly that GE14 is near and had directed Umno to be fully prepared for it.
"Given that Chinese New Year falls on Jan 28, fasting month starts at the end of May and Hari Raya Aidilfitri is likely to fall on June 25, the prime minister is likely to dissolve Parliament in April," said a political observer, adding that if the election is not held in May, it would probably be held in September.
"As Malaysia, which will host the SEA Games from Aug 19 to 31, 2017, celebrates its 60th anniversary of Merdeka next year, Najib may take advantage of the good feelings created by Malaysia's splendid performance in the SEA Games and the Merdeka Day celebration to call for snap polls in September," explained the observer.
The observer said whether GE14 would be based on the old or new constituency boundaries, which have seen objections by MPs from both sides of the political divide and likely to be challenged in court by the Opposition, is among the prime minister's considerations in deciding GE14.
The election will not be based on the new boundaries If GE14 is to be held in April as a motion to seek the passage of the proposals of the redelineation exercise can be tabled the earliest by next March, said the observer.