ISKANDAR PUTERI (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The government has no issues allowing Malaysians to return to vote in the Johor election, but those living in Singapore will have to adhere to the Republic's Covid-19 rules, said Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He said that Malaysia would want its citizens to come back to vote as it is their right.

"But the borders are closed due to the pandemic and those coming back will need to comply with Singapore's regulations," he said on Friday (Feb 18) when asked if the government would open a special lane for Malaysians wanting to return to vote in the state election on March 12.

Asked if there were any discussions on increasing the current vaccinated travel lane quota for land, Datuk Seri Ismail said that would involve Malaysia's Health Minister and his Singapore counterpart.

"They (Singapore) are also concerned about the high number of cases in their country. We cannot be abrupt or rush into this," he said, adding that many countries remained cautious amid the pandemic.

Mr Ismail said during his recent visit to Brunei, the Covid-19 standard operating procedure there was extremely tight, with a curfew in place from midnight to morning.

The deadline for Johoreans living overseas to register as postal voters was Feb 18.

On the reopening of borders based on Malaysia's National Recovery Council (NRC) recommendations, Mr Ismail said there were differing views between those asking for them to be fully opened, like in some countries such as Britain, and others saying that the government should intervene and be cautious about the move because of the rising number of Covid-19 infections.

"We need to balance things and... have asked the Health Ministry to brief the Cabinet and give its recommendations on the matter soon," he said.

He added that it could either be reopening fully or with restrictions to certain countries.

He also said he understood the NRC's point in asking for the borders to be reopened based on the wish to revive the economy, especially when the worst-hit sector was the tourism and hotel industry.