10 NGO nominees including an academic, a women's activist and a part-time student, were elected today to fill the NGO quota for the Penang and Seberang Perai (MPPP and MPSP) municipal councillor posts.

The Penang Forum's mock election was organised by several civil society groups and was held at the Penang Chinese Girls School Alumni hall this morning.

The elected representatives for the MPPP posts included researcher Teo Lee Ken (170 votes), former professor and banker Lim Mah Hui (158), former Women's Crisis Centre president Chin Khuan Sui (128), mechanical engineer Low Swee Heong (125), and part-time student Dalbinder Singh Gil (89).

For the MPSP posts, the elected reps included lecturer Tiun Ling Ta (203), lawyer Sivagurupatham (149), businessman and former student activist Teng Kim Chew (132), environment and health assistant officer Krishnan Samiah (104) and managing director Ung Teow Hong (92 votes).

penang mock election 141110 chow kon yeow Penang state exco for local government, traffic management and environment Chow Kon Yeow ( right ) said he will submit the list of "winners" to the state government for consideration.

However, Chow said he could not guarantee that they will get appointed or how many of them will be appointed.

Chow added that he had personally proposed that for a start, the state should appoint five NGO representatives.

"But I was chased by the media when that was not fulfilled, so I have learnt a lesson," he added.

"It is not that I do not want to fulfil the NGO quota, but you must know that I do not run the government alone," he added.

In 2008, the proposed 10 slots for NGOs were taken up by business representatives, and this has caused some disappointment among the former.

Manifestos presented

Earlier, 24 candidates offered themselves to be elected to fulfil the NGO quota for the posts.

They took turns to introduce themselves and presented their manifestos before the 300 odd participants.

Among them, four candidates from the Malaysian Retired Police Society were asked about their stand on the Internal Security Act during the Q&A session.

Abdul Majid Othman and Ahmad Fauzi Abdullah both stated that ISA, which allows detention without trial, should continue to exist as a preventive law as long as it enforced in a transparent manner.

In jest, Ahmad Fauzi told human rights lawyer Karen Lai who posed the question, that she should instead question parliamentarians about it.

"I am just contesting a local councillor's post," he said.

About 10am, a total of 253 people had registered themselves as voters for the Penang Forum's mock election, organised by several civil society groups.

An hour before that, the ‘polling station' had also been crowded with voters, and the venue was buzzing with activities.

Candidates started distributing leaflets and displayed their colourful banners outside the hall before the event begun.

The 10 contestants who garnered the most votes will be recommended to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for him to consider appointing them as municipal councillors for 2011-2012.