“We strongly advise against the traditional way of political campaigning as any physical, face-to-face meetings between politicians and the people can lead to the spread of Covid-19 in the state and even nationwide, now that interstate travel is allowed,” MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai said in a statement.

He said the norm of political campaigning which involves house-to-house visits, gatherings and talks should be avoided.

“If the politicians truly have the best interests of the people at heart, they should show it by choosing ways to campaign that are safe and not put the people at risk of being infected with Covid-19,” he added.

Koh also said it does not matter that the vaccination rate is over 90% as the virus was still spreading even among fully vaccinated people who could then transmit it to high-risk and unvaccinated people.

“The mistakes and failures to control the spread of Covid-19 during the Sabah state election in September last year must not be repeated in Melaka,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bersih 2.0 called for the EC to spread out the nomination and voting process over a period of several days in order to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19.

They said that five to seven days should be allocated for nominations while voting should be spread out over a three-day period in order to reduce the likelihood of crowding.

The Melaka state election will be held on Nov 20, with early voting to be held on Nov 16 and nominations set for Nov 8.