KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — With Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases still in the four figures, it would be ill-advised to call a general election in the foreseeable future, the health minister said today.

Khairy Jamaluddin said this in response to a question during a press conference today on how some political parties were reportedly pushing for national polls to be held.

He stressed that the Health Ministry (MoH) is strongly against it unless faced with an unavoidable situation such as was the case with the Melaka and Sarawak state elections.

"The ministry’s opinion is that this is not the right time to have a general election due to the current upward trend of Covid-19 cases, increasing hospital admissions and the emergence of new variants.

"And I think that it is not a responsible move to have a general election anytime soon,” he said.

Commenting on the aftermath of the Melaka state election, Khairy said that the after-effects will start to show in 10 days’ time.

"Give it some time, as we anticipate seeing the result of the Melaka state election in a few days from now,” he added.

On the upcoming Sarawak state polls, he said the ministry will prepare its standard operating procedure (SOP) recommendations, before giving them to the Election Commission (EC) by November 30.

The EC has set December 18 as Polling Day for the upcoming 12th Sarawak state election.

Nomination Day is set for December 6, while early polling will be held on December 14.