Kuala Lumpur mayor Mhd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz has been blasted for arguing against local elections in the city, saying it would lead to the opposition occupying the mayor’s office.

“The comment of Amin's is no doubt a violation of the democratic spirit.

“If there is an election of the mayor, then whoever obtains the people’s mandate, whether from the ruling party or opposition party and/or even independents, he/she should not be denied from holding the position of mayor.

“Under the democratic system, voting rights is the basic human rights of the people,” said Federal Territories DAP Youth deputy chief Alice Tan in a statement.

She was responding to Amin telling BFM in an interview that local elections in the capital city would result in a “discrepancy” with the federal government.

"Kuala Lumpur as the capital city of Malaysia needs to be governed directly by the government because it is easy to implement the policy and projects that are needed in KL.

"If you have an elected mayor, I think it will be under opposition because most of the areas are won by opposition so there will be a discrepancy between the federal and the state levels,” said Amin during the interview.

In the last two general elections, opposition MPs swept the majority of Kuala Lumpur’s parliamentary seats.

Despite the opposition majority, the city continues to be governed by the federal government through BN-appointed mayors.

Amin reasoned the mayor needs to work with the BN minister in charge of the Federal Territories.

“In order to administer KL, you have to work with the minister. The minister makes the policy, the mayor executes.

“If the mayor cannot execute what the minister has asked him to do, then there will be haywire in terms of administration,” Amin told the business station.

However, Tan argued that KL had local elections in the past, with its first in 1952 and such polls were abolished in the mid-1960s with the Local Government Act 1976 to the detriment of the city dwellers.

“When KL become Federal Territory, its citizens had also lost their ‘second voting’ rights which they had enjoyed during the Selangor state election, and now they have suffered from these double blows.

“In fact, KL as the capital city of Malaysia should be the bellwether to restore the local government elections in our country,” she said.

‘Discrepancy’ claim baseless

She said Amin’s claims were “baseless” as capital cities around the world have local government elections and elected mayors, such as Washington DC and Canberra.

“Canberra even has its own state government,” said Tan.

She added that such “discrepancy” cited by Amin would not arise if healthy competition at the polls was observed and the voters’ rights respected.

She asked why KL’s two million population should not have elected representatives to decide how the city council (DBKL) spends its budget, which she said at RM2 billion since 2006 is even higher than Selangor’s state budget.

“Also, why should citizens of KL observe laws and regulations of DBKL if the people do not have their elected representatives in the municipal legislative council?” she asked.

“We as the younger generation of Kuala Lumpur feel that it is meaningless to celebrate Federal Territory Day on Feb 1, and have nothing to be proud of, as we have lost our basic rights to exercise our responsibilities as Kuala Lumpur's citizens.”