THE law would have to be amended for local government elections (LGE) to take place, said a local government law expert.

Lawyer Derek Fernandez said Putrajaya needed to amend the Local Government Act 1976 to allow LGEs once more.

“They will need to pass in Parliament the Local Government Elections Act.  

“This act was already prepared in 1960 and it was called the Local Government Elections Act 1960, and it was revised in 1991.

“The government may want to revise it one more time in 2018 to include any new requirements they may want based on its current policies on LGE,” Fernandez old The Malaysian Insight. 

Fernandez was responding to Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin who said the government would hold local elections from 2021. 

She said Putrajaya is doing early research to study the feasibility of the third vote being introduced in three years. 

Fernandez said each state assembly will have to adopt the two acts to hold LGE in the respective states.

He said each state would also need to meet the requirements of the Election Commission to carry out the polls. 

Fernandez commended Zuraida for committing to the idea by not only setting down the timeframe for the changes to come into effect, but also by actually forming a task force in her ministry to look into the legal framework and necessary amendments to the law. 

The local councils, including City Hall, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Election Commission and other relevant agencies are represented in the task force. 

Fernandez said while that was a good start, it would take about 15 months for the task force to  complete the legal framework and the implementation mechanism for LGE.

“Amendments to several laws are required and the passing and adoption of these laws has to occur in both the federal parliament and state assemblies.”

However, no constitutional amendment was required, he said.

Fernandez said that once this was done the EC would be called to define the boundaries and electoral roles.  

“While the actually legislative drafting can be done in 100 days (as the laws have previously been drafted),  the process to make them effective laws and to implement will take at least a year,” he said.

Fernandez said Malaysians expected the process to be quick, especially in the case of City Hall, which urgently needs elections to legitimise the concentrated power vested in one person, which is the mayor.

“Whatever the case it is critical that Pakatan Harapan restores local government elections  promptly as they even sued the former Barisan Nasional governemt through the state of Penang claiming that there was the only obstacle to local government elections, which they claimed were vital to restore the third vote.”

Save Kuala Lumpur deputy chairman M. Ali said it was crucial that the ministry engage with stakeholders before making any legal amendmants.

“The mechanism for the act is already there. All it needs is to be tweaked.

“Once that is done then the relevant people can be elected. 

“We don’t want political appointees like before. The council must have cross representation,” he said. 

Brickfields Rukun Tetangga S.K.K. Naidu said the representatives should come from the local communities and not from other states. 

“Stakeholders should look at electing someone who is respected by the local community and has successfully solved neighbourhood issues and problems. 

“The elections should be held by the council on its own, with no money from the goverment,” he said. – August 7, 2018.