Responding to allegations that he was holding back his party from campaigning, he said he was forced to set the strict SOPs to avoid another Covid-19 wave.

He said there were no clusters of Covid-19 cases arising from the elections.

“For those who said (the restrictions) held back the party, I don’t think so. I was carrying out my duty as the health minister,” he said in an interview with Umno Online on Covid-19 and politics.

He said the restrictions should be seen as being positive for the party. “At least, it is being seen that ministers from Umno are doing a good job,” he said.

He stressed that the strict SOPs were a public health measure to avoid infections among candidates, ministers, and members of party election machineries.

Khairy had announced bans on all ceramah and social gatherings for the Melaka elections and said that anyone who organised a public event would be slapped with compound fines and could be charged in court.

Following that, Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan said he did not agree with the health ministry’s restrictions during the Melaka polls, but urged that election activities be allowed on a smaller scale.

Khairy said the health ministry would help Umno in coming up with SOPs for its postponed general assembly.

He added that as long as there was no widespread Covid-19 spread from the Omicron variant, general assemblies in states under Phase 4 of the national recovery plan would be allowed.