{"id":15522,"date":"2022-11-14T20:49:09","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T12:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=15522"},"modified":"2022-11-14T20:49:10","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T12:49:10","slug":"nov-18-19-declared-as-public-holidays-due-to-polling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=15522","title":{"rendered":"Nov 18, 19 declared as public holidays due to polling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>PUTRAJAYA,\u00a0Nov 14<\/strong> &#8212; The government today declared Nov 18 and 19 as public holiday to enable electors to exercise their right to vote in the 15th general election (GE15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prime Minister&nbsp;Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob,&nbsp;announcing this today, said Nov 19 was also declared a public holiday as there may be some&nbsp;companies from the private sector, especially factories, that will be operating on that day, making it&nbsp;difficult for their employees to cast their vote.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe right to vote is a right guaranteed by the constitution and I don&#8217;t want a single person to be prevented from voting,&#8221; <\/em>he said\u00a0at the groundbreaking ceremony of Wisma Cuepacs (Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services) here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also present were Chief Secretary to the Government\u00a0Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali and\u00a0Cuepacs president Datuk Adnan Mat.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png\" alt=\"public holiday\" class=\"wp-image-15523\" width=\"583\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png 640w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc-178x100.png 178w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc-350x197.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 583px) 100vw, 583px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The Election Commission (EC) has set Nov 19 as polling day while early voting is tomorrow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Nov 7, Cuepacs had proposed to the government&nbsp;declare a special public holiday on Nov 18 to facilitate the movement of Malaysians to polling locations for GE15, and the next day, Ismail Sabri reportedly said the proposal would be considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ismail Sabri said the government has also agreed that the November salary payment&nbsp;for civil servants be&nbsp;brought forward to Nov 17, while pensions will be paid on&nbsp;Nov 14.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThis is expected to ease the\u00a0burden of civil servants planning to travel to\u00a0fulfil\u00a0their responsibilities as voters,&#8221;<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ismail Sabri also said that&nbsp;30 highway concessionaires have agreed to offer free toll rates for two days in conjunction with GE15.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe free toll will start from 12.01\u00a0am on Nov 18 (Friday) until 11.59 pm on Saturday, Nov 19 involving all private vehicles, with Class 1 (vehicles) alone estimated to be around 90 percent of the total number of vehicles on the highways,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ismail Sabri also gave an assurance that if the government under his leadership is given a new mandate after GE15, all&nbsp;announcements made at the 18th Civil Service Premier Gathering (MAPPA) and which were contained in Budget 2023 will be implemented.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They include an increase in&nbsp;the maximum amount&nbsp;of Cash Award in Lieu of Leave (GCR)&nbsp;accumulated from 150 days to 160 days&nbsp;and&nbsp;the early redemption of GCR up to a maximum of 90 days.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Others include an annual salary increment of RM100&nbsp;for civil servants from Grade 11 to 56,&nbsp;special financial assistance of RM700 to 1.3 million civil servants and RM350 for one million government pensioners as well as&nbsp;RM600 as special aid for Hari Raya Aidilfitri in March 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/\">NMT<\/a> as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/pru15.bernama.com\/news-en.php?id=2138541\">Bernama<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PUTRAJAYA,\u00a0Nov 14 &#8212; The government today declared Nov 18 and 19 as public holiday to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png",640,360,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc-300x169.png",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png",640,360,false],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png",640,360,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png",640,360,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png",640,360,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png",640,360,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png",640,360,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/101149900_malaysia_election_illustration_640-nc.png",640,360,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=524\" rel=\"category\">Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15524,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522\/revisions\/15524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}