KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — Another PAS leader has questioned the need for local elections in the pursuit of democracy, saying Islam rejects the idolisation of polls if it meant abandoning the current system of constitutional monarchy.

Entering the fray with DAP over local government elections, PAS’ Pasir Mas MP Nik Mohd Abduh Nik Aziz insisted that the Islamist party has long resisted the restoration of the so-called third vote, disputing claims that the rejection is the personal stance of its president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

The son of PAS spiritual advisor Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat also said elections were neither the only way to obtain justice nor guaranteed to eliminate inequality, and that an Islamic-based democracy — which he claimed modern democracy borrows from — is capable of delivering greater fairness.

“Does the nation need to change from a constitutional monarchy to achieve fairness, based on the argument that the existence of royalty stunts equality?

“If so, we have idolised democracy and elections too much. Islam rejects this,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Nik Mohd Abduh did not specify how the Islamic system ensured better equality or elaborate on how local council elections would require a change to the system of constitutional monarchy currently employed at the state and federal levels.

Last month, Abdul Hadi claimed that DAP’s ambition to restore the so-called third vote would create racial inequality in urban areas and trigger a repeat of the May 13, 1969 race riots, prompting DAP leaders to rebuke him for the assertion.

Earlier this week, PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali called his DAP counterpart, Lim Guan Eng, a liar for claiming that the Islamist party had agreed to the latter’s bid to restore local council elections, and challenged him to a public debate on the issue and hudud.

The disagreement over the third vote is the most recent flashpoint between PAS and DAP, who have been trading barbs over the Islamist party’s plan to enforce Islamic penal law in Kelantan.

DAP had proposed that its Pakatan Rakyat allies adopt Penang’s approach and enact state laws in Selangor and Kelantan to try to return the third vote to Malaysians.

PAS, however, accused DAP of acting unilaterally in seeking to restore local council elections, in apparent retaliation the latter's vehement attacks over the Islamist party’s hudud ambition.  

Local council elections were suspended in 1965 because of the Indonesian Confrontation and then-prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman promised the Dewan Rakyat that the third vote would be restored once the Confrontation was over.

They were never brought back; Parliament subsequently passed a law in 1976 abolishing local elections.