KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — Residents in Petaling Jaya might be the first in Selangor to vote in local councillors if the state Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is able to roll out its 2013 electoral manifesto, DAP lawmaker Ong Kian Ming has said.

Despite an ongoing internal disagreement within PR over DAP’s bid to restore the third vote, Ong said Selangor may be testing it out as it had promised to do so in its state manifesto, Sinar Harian reported today.

“One local council election would be tested in Selangor and maybe Petaling Jaya although it has not been decided,” the Serdang MP was quoted saying by the Malay daily at a forum in Shah Alam yesterday.

Asked about the possibility that Selangor PAS might oppose the implementation, Ong said the party could discuss it with the state government.

Selangor PR had, in its manifesto for the 13th general election, stated that it would “carry out decentralisation through a gradual implementation of local government elections”.

With the implementation of local council elections, residents would be able to push forward their grassroot concerns on the environment and transport that might otherwise not be heard at the federal or state level such as the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway, the Damansara-Shah Alam expressway and garbage disposal, Ong said.

Citing greater transparency, DAP recently suggested its PR allies adopt Penang’s approach and enact state laws in Selangor and Kelantan to try to return the so-called third vote to Malaysians.

However, the bid met with opposition from PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang who claimed doing so would cause disunity, leading to racial riots such as May 13, 1969 once more.

Local council elections had been carried out until 1966 when it was suspended due to regional conflict wt Indonesia.

The then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman had told Parliament that local elections would resume after the Indonesian Confrontation ended, which happened a year later in 1966.

However, it was never restored and Parliament subsequently abolished the third vote in 1976.