Senator Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad Baharuddin Shah – Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Housing and Local Government is in the midst of preparing a working paper on the local authority elections to be tabled to the Cabinet by the end of this year.
Its Deputy Minister Senator Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad Baharuddin Shah said the Cabinet would then decide the feasibility of conducting local authority elections in the country.
“In this regard, local authority elections will not be implemented in the near future until there is a decision by the Cabinet on this matter,” he said during the oral question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was replying to a question from Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (BN-Pengerang) who wanted to know the progress of the study on the implementation of local authority elections and whether it would be implemented in the near future.
Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah said the ministry was currently conducting a study on the subject including assessing the implementation of such practice in foreign countries such as Australia, India and the United States.
“The ministry has also engaged several parties including government representatives, state governments’ secretaries, Election Commission (EC) and Attorney General’s Chamber in this effort,” he said.
He said thus far the ministry has organised a series workshops to study the feasibility of conducting local authority elections from the period of 2018 until 2019.
Before it could be implemented, local authority elections required amendments on certain laws and regulations including amendments to Section 10 and Section 15 of the Local Government Act 1976 (Act 171), as well as relevant laws and regulations under the EC, he said. – Bernama