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GEORGE TOWN -Penang has given the Election Commission (EC) a month to decide whether it will hold local government elections in the state.
Local Government Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said the matter would be referred to the court if the EC declined to conduct the local government elections as the Local Council Election (Penang Island and Province Wellesley) Enactment 2012 had been gazetted recently.
He said the state would ask the court to declare the enactment as not ultra vires of the constitution and to compel the EC to conduct the elections for the third vote.
"We will work on (waiting for a reply) for one month first," he said at a press conference together with Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today.
The EC in a letter dated Sept 14, stated it was aware of the enactment and that it would inform Lim once a decision had been made.
The letter was a reply to Lim's letter on Aug 30 asking the commission to conduct local elections in Penang.
Chow said the state asked the commission to conduct the elections as Article 113(4) of the Federal Constitution allowed the federal or state government to vest the EC with the authority to conduct elections other than the general election.
Chow said they hoped that the EC would give a quick reply to their request as the state had to prepare an order on conducting the local government elections which had to be tabled at the next state assembly sitting in November.
Meanwhile, EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof when contacted said that the EC is awaiting the Attorney-General's legal opinion on the matter.
"I hope by this week (the EC will get a response on the matter)," he said in a text message to theSun.
-thesundaily
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