THE Pakatan Harapan government is committed to bring back local government elections, which has been suspended for 54 years, said Zuraida Kamaruddin.

The local government and housing minister assured MPs today that Pakatan Harapan (PH) would make good its promise to restore the third vote.

“We have taken over the government, and holding local government elections is part of our promises to the people. We will work to see its return.

“Because it will involve amending laws and conducting studies, I estimate that we will need three more years.

“We also need time to engage the people at the local level to educate them on local elections,” she said, replying to points raised during the debate on the royal address.

She was replying Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS-Kota Bharu), who interjected to argue that the present arrangement to appoint councillors was good enough.

Earlier, Ramkarpal Singh (PH-Bukit Gelugor) also asked the government whether it has the political will to return the third vote to the people.

He said he could understand if some time was needed before local elections could be reintroduced but for the government to take three years was “unacceptable”.

Local government elections were suspended after the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation in 1964. The suspension was never lifted and was instead made permanent under the Local Government Act.

Under the Act, local government councillors are appointed by the state government. It is the practice that the appointees come from the ruling parties.

Ramkarpal said all studies had shown that local elections were beneficial to the people, adding that “scrapping it has been a political manoeuvre back then.”

The DAP MP from Penang also said appointments could lead to abuse, citing the case of former Klang Municipal councillor Zakaria Md Deros from Umno, who was appointed from 2004 to 2006.

Zakaria, who died in 2008 of a heart attack, attracted controversy in 2006 when he failed to send in building plans for his home, which had 16 bedrooms, 21 bathrooms, three living rooms, a VIP room, a swimming pool, bowling room, gazebos, an orchard, a two-hole golf lawn, wet and dry kitchens and an office among others.

The former Port Klang assemblyman also did not pay assessment for the property for 12 years.

“Local elections are democratic and it is time to do that at the local government level,” Zuraida replied to Ramkarpal.

She also told Takiyuddin that there was no need to hold a nationwide referendum to ask the people whether they thought it was appropriate to have local government elections.

“If we could change the government peacefully on May 9, we don’t need a referendum. The people are ready for local elections,” the minister from PKR said.

The Penang government tried to reintroduce local government elections several years ago. In 2012, the Penang legislative assembly passed the Local Government Elections (Penang Island and Province Wellesley) Enactment, which provides for the Election Commission to conduct local government elections in the state.

But the Federal Court in 2014 ruled that the state government has no power to hold local elections, and had exceeded its jurisdiction by unilaterally exempting the application of Section 15 of the Local Government Act to the whole of Penang.

Section 15 bars all state legislatures from holding local government elections within their states. – August 1, 2018.