KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 — A Malaysian NGO called for the third vote to be reinstated even though the prime minister shot it down two weeks ago.

In a statement to the media, Kuasa said the government's worry that local elections may lead to racial strife is "pure fear-mongering.”

Its chief executive, Praba Ganesan, gave three examples of countries with a history of ethnic conflict that have local elections: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sri Lanka and Rwanda.

He said all three of these countries did not see local elections as the cause of any new strife.

"Bosnia has had six local elections since war ended following the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. This involved 142 municipalities and in the last one in 2016, nearly three thousand candidates, " he said.

Sri Lanka's civil war which carried on from 1982 to 2005 also did not deter the government from carrying on with local elections.

Rwanda also held local council elections in 2017 for 15,014 positions.

"Malaysia has to move away from a culture of fear as a reason to avoid representation, public discourse and localised decision-making,” Praba said.

The grassroots democracy education NGO also criticised the Pakatan Harapan government for preferring to "rely on central government for opeartion budgets and growth.”