PETALING JAYA, June 12 ― An online survey by the Centre for a Better Tomorrow (Cenbet) has found that Putrajaya should bring back local government elections as there is a strong trust deficit in local authorities by the informed Malaysian public.

Cenbet co-president Gan Ping Sieu told a press conference that based on their poll of 1,000 people, there is a 41 per cent trust deficit for local authorities and 79 per cent of those pollsters wanted municipal and city councils to be independent.

"I remember when I was an assemblyman in 2006, there was discussion that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government should look into bringing back the third vote. But there were some pre-conditions to fulfill.

"We were worried that certain local elections may have issues where certain ethnicities dominate the situation ― so it may not be urgent enough.

"But we had a peaceful power transition at state and federal level and the urgent need for reforms shows that conditions (that the public) have matured and we should look into ushering in local elections,” said Gan.

He believes that Pakatan Harapan should prioritise city and municipal council elections for the position of mayor and council presidents while leaving district offices to the state administration due to their need for state and federal government financial assistance.

Gan also praised  the political determination of Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamarudin for starting a six months study on the feasibility of conducting local elections in Selangor and Penang within three years time.

Cenbet conducted its survey titled "Do Malaysians Trust Public Institutions” in February this year where it polled on the public perception on politicians, BN federal government, the police, the armed forces, local and municipal government as well as online and mainstream media.

Although Gan admitted that his survey is outdated due to the events such as the 14th General Election changing the nation's political scenario, he still believed the ruling government can use the study as a guide.

"Our findings wasn't tailored for PH or BN for that matters. It was on what the public had in mind, the performance gap on the findings they have. We would have present our findings to the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) to look into it,” he said.