KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — Six city councillors in Selangor were sacked in a day by Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari, as those who had their tenures terminated decried a political vendetta behind the move. 

A report by English daily The Star today further claimed that several other leaders are also expected to get the boot as the Opposition led state moves to terminate those with differing political allegiances. 

Councillors who received their termination letters yesterday include Ismail Kamal Abdul Rahman who was booted from the Subang Jaya City Council (MPSJ), joining Nallan Dhanabalan, Haslina Abin@Kassim, Salmah Ismail, and Hassan Yusof who were all sacked from the Ampang Jaya City Council. 

Also notified of his sacking was Sepang Municipal Councillor Muhammad Mizan Adli Muhammad Noor, who according to The Star’s report was the first among the councillors to receive his termination letter from Amirudin. 

The report noted how the termination letters issued to the councillors merely stated how their services for the 2018-2020 period was being terminated while citing provisions within the Local Government Act 1976 (Act 171) that supposedly allows their removal from office. 

It was reported that these letters did not include reasons for their sacking, leading the former councillors to cry foul and allege that their sacking was a result of politically charged motives.

The report today also claimed how all the six councillors who were sacked coincidentally are PKR members who had supported former party deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali’s breakaway faction which eventually formed the Perikatan Nasional government on March 1. 

The move effectively ended the reformist coalition Pakatan Harapan’s reign as government after winning the General Elections in 2018. 

Selangor is governed by Pakatan Harapan, with Amirudin from PKR, a party where its president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had previously labelled those who supported Azmin as traitors of the party.