PM: Local council elections off the table

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today that local council elections are off the table, warning that its reinstatement could lead to racial conflict and widen the urban-rural divide.

“No local council elections.

“[...] Local council elections may produce the wrong result. The urban (areas) may be different, the rural (areas) will be different.

“There will be conflict, emphasised probably by racial differences and the like. We don’t want that to happen,” he said when asked during a press conference after officiating at the Empowering Local Councils Convention at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre this morning.

Called the third vote, local council elections is one of the key discussion topics of the convention, which is attended by about 3,000 mayors, local councillors and local authority staff.

Also present was Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, who previously estimated that mayoral and local council president elections would be held within three years, after the country’s economy stabilised.

Pakatan Harapan's manifesto did not promise to restore local government elections.

DAP Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng previously said that Kuala Lumpur Harapan lawmakers will push to revive local council elections.

Civil society groups and residential associations have also been calling for local council elections to be reinstated to allow the rakyat better representation at the local government level.

Such elections were last held in 1965.  

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