Local gov’t polls can be held, say legal experts advising Penang gov’t

Each of the three had prepared his own legal opinion. Except for minor differences in emphases, they came to the common conclusion that it was legally possible to conduct local government elections. They offered a novel perspective into the legal conundrum.
 
Yeoh was present at the press conference. He clarified that others who were looking into this problem had highlighted previously that the sticky point was the conflict between the Local Government Act (LGA) 1976 S 15(1) which prohibited Local Government elections to be held and the Local Government Elections Act (LGEA) 1960 which provides for elections. Those who maintained that Local Government elections could not be held had based their argument on thae basis of LGA 1976 S. 15(1) which stated that ‘…all provisions relating to local government elections shall cease to have force and effect’. In other words, If LGA S.15(1) is valid and can’t be avoided, then Local Government elections as provided in LGEA 1960 are prohibited.

On the other hand, those who argued that Local Government elections could be held did not challenge the validity of S. 15(1). Rather they argued that Local Government elections could still be held because a State Government can ‘opt out’ of it, by virtue of S. 1(4) of the LGA 1976: ‘The State Authority may [notwithstanding that it had earlier opted for the Act or part thereof] by notification in the Gazette exempt any area within any local authority area from all or any of the provisions of the Act or from any bylaws’. After ‘opting out’ the LGEA 1960 can then be invoked to carry out Local Government elections.