Sabah aims to hold local council elections

PETALING JAYA (June 26): The Parti Warisan Sabah-led state government aims to hold local council elections in the state – either within this term or the next five years – in tandem with the federal government’s plans to re-introduce local council elections.

In a report by The Star, Deputy Chief Minister and state Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Jaujan Sambakong said Sabah will carry out a thorough study on the elections.

“The time will come for the people to elect the local government in charge of administering their city. The people want to choose,” he said.

He added that the state government will decentralise by slowly granting more powers to local governments and upgrading district councils.

“Our immediate plan is to upgrade district councils by redistributing powers and functions away from the central authority.

“Currently, all the planning and decision making is done at the central level but we want to give district councils more power to plan and decide what is needed in their specific geographical area such as electricity and water supply,” he said.