Penang restores local council vote

Lim says his administration has contacted the EC to restore local council elections in Penang. — file pic

By Neville Spykerman - The Malaysian Insider

PENANG, March 6 — Penang has decided to ask the Election Commission (EC) to conduct local government elections for two municipalities in the state this year, sticking to its campaign promise to restore the third vote just days shy of its electoral victory two years ago.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today the local election will involve two municipal councils: the Municipal Council of Penang Island (MPPP) and Municipal Council of Seberang Perai (MPSP).

If held, the elections will be the first in the country in more than 40 years since the federal government banned them in 1965.

“The executive council decided this week we will go ahead with the local government election,” Lim told The Malaysian Insider, adding the government has sent a letter to the EC on March 4 asking them to conduct the polls.

“We want to restore the democratic power to the people,” he added, pointing out that Penang was the first state government to move in this direction.

However, he declined to elaborate further, saying that he would rather wait for the EC to respond to his letter. “I don’t want to colour future discussion with the EC. After all, it has been 45 years, so we can wait a bit longer.”

“It was a unanimous decision by the state executive council,” Lim said, when asked if PAS and PKR were consulted or had any objections to the move. He added opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was aware of the move.

In the letter addressed to EC chairman, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, Lim said the state it was asking the commission to conduct the local government elections under Article 113 (4) of the Federal Constitution.

The Article reads that federal and state laws can confer power to the EC to conduct any other elections apart from those in Schedule (1). Lim’s letter said the federal laws that allow the state government to be a competent authority include Local Government Elections Act 1960 and the Local Government Act 1976.

The chief minister also hoped for a meeting soon to get the EC’s views on the local government elections, which it hoped would be held soon.

The DAP secretary-general had proposed the third vote campaign in 2007, a year before then-prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called for elections on March 8, 2008. But the federal government had refused the proposal to restore the elections.

He also pushed for it in the Common Policy Framework of the Pakatan Rakyat unveiled last December, but the coalition pact opted to go for the phrase “strengthening local government democracy”. Pakatan now comprises PKR, DAP and PAS.

It is understood the main fear of the allies was losing to the ruling Barisan Nasional federal government if such elections were held. There was also a fear that non-Malays would swamp Malays in the vote, particularly in urban areas, but several Pakatan strategists had pointed out that there have been shifts in population demographics.