KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 ― Pakatan Rakyat parties adamant on restoring local council elections despite legal barriers can circumvent the prohibition using indirect polls, civil society groups have said.
Maria Chin Abdullah, who heads electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0, said that this has already been done before, when nearly 300 people voted for their preferred candidates for local councillors in Penang in 2010.
“They already did it in Penang. The state government appointed two of the candidates who were given the most votes as local councillors,” she told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
The 2010 “vote” was organised by civil society coalition Penang Forum, which was formed to promote “participatory local democracy”, among other objectives.
A total of 10 candidates were shortlisted according to their popularity, and the list was submitted for consideration as local councillor by the Penang state government. Two were eventually appointed, Dr Mah Hui Lim and Dr Tiun Ling Ta.
The Selangor state government also dabbled in a similar approach, when it allowed villagers of Kg Baru Pandamaran, Kg Baru Jenjarom and Kg Bagan Pulau Ketam to elect their own village chiefs in 2011 and 2013.
Anil Netto, who was one of the organisers of the Penang Forum “vote”, said the informal election was one possible way to get around the legal hurdles against local council elections, as the public could collectively choose those they would like to be appointed as councillors.
However, he admitted that there could be complications if the method were to be expanded beyond what they had attempted.
“I don’t know whether the state government has the resources to ensure security and reliability in such a vote,” he said when contacted.
The disagreement over the third vote is the most recent flashpoint between PAS and DAP.
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, but PAS rejected the idea by claiming it would worsen racial inequality in cities and magnify the urban-rural divide.
Local council elections were once held between 1951 and 1965, during which time Malaysians got to elect their local councillors.
Local council elections were suspended almost 50 years ago in 1965 because of the Indonesian Confrontation, and the then-prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman had promised the Dewan Rakyat that these would be restored once the Confrontation was over.
The Confrontation ended in 1966, but local government elections were never restored and councillors are now appointed by the state government.
