The Penang government has instructed its state legal adviser to issue a gazette notification exempting local authorities in Penang from Section 15 of the Local Government Act 1976.

Section 15 of the Act provides that all laws relating to local government elections are of no force and effect.

dap conference 080112 lim guan eng Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said this would be the prelude to the state seeking a court declaration to compel the Election Commission (EC) to conduct local government elections in Penang.

Lim was responding to Housing and Local Government Minister Chor Chee Heung, who said yesterday that Penang should consult with the National Council on Local Government (NCLG) before issuing any such notification.

"The minister should be fully aware that the state has already attempted to consult with the NCLG on the issue of restoring local government elections," Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general,

said in a statement.

"On March 24, 2010, I wrote to the EC asking it to conduct local government elections for the Penang and Seberang Perai municipal councils, but the former refused," he added.

"On March 12, 2010, I wrote to the prime minister, offering to meet with him to discuss the state government's position, but again received no response," he said.

No plan at all for local council elections

Lim said on July 14, 2009, Penang state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow wrote to Chor, who heads the NCLG secretariat, seeking local council elections, but was told that the federal government had no plan to reinstate this.

mca new cabinet member 180308 chor chee heung A month later, the Penang legislative assembly passed a resolution calling on the federal authorities to take action to reinstate local government elections.

Lim said Chow, who is also the MP for Tanjung, wrote another letter to Chor ( right ) on Aug 4 the same year, informing him about the state assembly resolution and urged Chor to table and discuss the matter at the 62nd NCLG meeting.

However, in a letter dated Sept 14, 2009, the minister again refused to list the topic for discussion, Lim added.

Meanwhile, a three-member legal panel retained by Penang gave its opinion that the state had the power to reintroduce local government elections.

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The lawyers - Yeo Yang Poh, Tommy Thomas and Malik Imtiaz - had said that this was provided for under the 1960 Local Government Elections Act 1960 (revised 1991).

Between 1951 and 1965, the country practised a system of local democracy where councillors were elected by residents in the locality they lived in, and this system has since been abolished.

"The Penang legal adviser has been instructed to effect this gazette notification and also to issue a fiat appointing Thomas to represent the state in court," the statement by Lim said.

"After the gazette notification, the state will refer this dispute with the EC to the courts."