KUALA LUMPUR: Local government elections will not be held anytime soon until a Cabinet decision is reached, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Housing and Local Government (KPKT) minister Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah said the ministry is preparing a paper on the matter to be presented to the Cabinet by end of the year.
“So far, the ministry has held three series of workshops in 2018 and 2019 to study the feasibility of conducting local government elections,” he said in reply to a question by Datuk Seri Azalina Othman (BN-Pengerang).
Raja Kamarul said in order for local government elections to be held, the Local Government Act 1976 needed to be reinstated.
He also said amendments would have to be made to Acts under the Election Commission, besides the creation of a new law.
He said prior studies on local government elections had been carried out in other Commonwealth countries like Australia and India to investigate claims that they could cause inter-racial conflicts and widening the gap between people from urban and rural areas.
"The (findings) of such studies will be put into consideration when presenting the paper (to the Cabinet).
"We are looking at the (relevant) acts and carried out discussions with state secretaries, the Election Commission, Attorney-General, and other stakeholders," he added.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had last year dismissed any possibility of instituting local council elections, saying they would create racial conflicts and widen the urban and rural gap, saying it could end up producing the “wrong results.”
Housing and Local Government Zuraida Kamaruddin however in an interview in May clarified that such concerns would be addressed in the study carried out by the ministry.
She was reported as saying that the elections for the local councils' mayors and presidents could be held within three years once the country’s economy stabilises. -- Reporting by Nuradzimmah Daim, Nor Ain Mohamed Radhi, and Hana Naz Harun