Human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) wants Putrajaya to repeal a Section 15 of the Local Government Act, which would pave the way for local council elections.
Human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) wants Putrajaya to repeal a Section 15 of the Local Government Act, which would pave the way for local council elections.
“The local council election is a direct manifestation of that right and one of the fundamental levels of any functioning democracy,” it said today in a press statement.
The Federal Court rejected an application filed by the Penang government and former president of Aliran Kesedaran Negara, P. Ramakrishnan, for local government elections to be held in the state.
The purpose of the petition was to review Parliament’s powers to enact laws relating to local council elections.
The law in question, which was Section 15 of the Local Government Act 1976, is able to stop local elections.
In a move to bring back local elections and to decentralise the federal government’s decision-making power, the Penang government sought to declare Section 15 of the 1976 Act invalid, saying that the section was void as Parliament went beyond its powers under the Federal Constitution in enacting that provision.
Suaram said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated that it is the people’s fundamental right to participate in the governmental process, whether directly or through freely chosen representatives.
It said that the local council elections were temporarily suspended during Malaysia’s Confrontation period with Indonesia, after the introduction of the Emergency (Suspension of Local Government Elections) Regulations Act 1965.
“Although the justification offered by the government at that time was flimsy, but this emergency situation was long over.
“There is really no reason to continue to suspend the local government election and it is disappointing that the Federal Court judges did not seem to take this as an important factor in their deliberation.”
