A petition to introduce flogging as punishment for drunk drivers, sex offenders and child abusers submitted on a government public participation platform yesterday passed the 5,000-supporter threshold for government review.
The proposal submitted to the National Development Council’s Public Policy Network Participation Platform asks that flogging be used as an additional punishment for repeat convictions of drunk driving, sexual assault and child abuse.
The proposal officially went online for public review on Friday last week and passed the 5,000-supporter threshold yesterday.
Photo: AFP
The platform allows anyone to propose policies, with related government agencies required to respond to any proposal that receives 5,000 or more votes of support within 60 days.
The flogging proposal calls for the punishment to be levied against people found guilty of drunk driving, sexual assault or child abuse on top of legally mandated fines or jail time.
The proposal calls for second-time offenders to be flogged once and third-time offenders twice, while fourth and fifth-time offenders would be flogged three times in cases that did not result in the death of a victim.
It also calls for first-time offenses that result in death to include flogging as punishment for the convict.
The user who proposed the policy said flogging would add another layer of deterrence to existing legal remedies for dealing with the crimes, which would hopefully make people think twice before committing them.
Government agencies now have two months to provide an official response to the proposal.
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