KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 — The Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) will possibly be put to task in reviewing the reintroduction of the local council elections due to growing demand from the public, says its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.

He said the local council polls have been suspended since the mid-1960s due to overwhelming politics that had affected the administration of the councils.

“The Act [Local Government Elections Act 1960] was suspended since 1967 until today... there had not been any local government elections.

“The mandate has not been given to us, but we believe after we complete this job [electoral reform], it will come. Many places we went to, the people had asked that we reintroduce it,” he told a press conference after a roundtable discussion with the media on electoral reforms at Wisma Bernama, here today.

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Abdul Rashid said there had been requests for the committee to hold a forum to discuss reintroducing the local council election.

“People now are smarter, they say there should be no taxation without representation.

“The local government, like the [KL] City Council, keeps increasing [the taxes], but does not reduce… I suffered like hell [from high taxes],” he said.

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Meanwhile, Abdul Rashid, who is also the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) vice-president, said the committee will be presenting hundreds of recommendations on electoral reforms to the government, once it is completed in 2020.

He said among the 15 important components identified by the committee that would be emphasised include the electoral system, constituency delimitation, and the voters’ registration.

 “We have only 15 components [divided into eight clusters each], but it is branched into many recommendations, a few hundreds. We will list it down and it will be a thick volume.

“What we are doing now is strengthening the democratic process in the elections and putting it on par with developed countries, as far as electoral management is concerned.

“If our recommendations are accepted, then there would be no more issues with the Election Commission (EC) as we have had many issues before… no other developed countries have got these issues,” he said.

Some of the recommendations proposed by the ECR include forming a system to ensure that each person votes in his or her place of residence, introducing automatic voter registration, and declaring public or state funding of political parties.

“We are suggesting that political fundings to parties have to be declared. You can no longer hide the money quietly.

“It is okay to receive a lot of money, that doesn’t matter, but we must know where the source of money is coming from,” he said.

The eight clusters of the components comprise electoral and voting system; voter registration; constituency delimitation; conduct of election; political registration and funding; administration of caretaker government as well as machinery and access to media; election management body, and voters education.