In making his decision, Asfia said the local authority was not financially autonomous and the state government would incur heavy costs if local municipal elections are held.

“Local government is a state responsibility. This means local government elections are to be organised and conducted and funded by the state government.

“Considering the whole of Kuching city, north and south, and Bintulu, and the other 24 local councils throughout Sarawak, the election costs would be huge.”

Asfia added that to conduct the local government elections, the state government would have to “dig deep” into the funds and provide for the voting infrastructure, registration and publication of electoral rolls.

However, Wong argued that the cost factor was not a good enough reason to refrain from holding local elections.

“The extraneous costs always occur when money politics is involved. It’s not because of the cost of the election itself,” he said to jeers from BN lawmakers.

Later at a press conference, Wong said the assembly lost the chance to debate on the moral hazards of allowing the ruling state government to appoint all the members of local councils.

“I am very unhappy with the ruling given by the speaker because of a very basic reason: speakers do not speak.

“A speaker should not represent any ministry or any state government to reply on policy matters. Speakers should not represent the government to make a policy stand.”

Wong told FMT he believed the real reason for the state government’s opposition is that they want to maintain control of all the local councils and the position of the councillors and mayors and deputy mayors.

“In such a situation, they are fully able to distribute funds among party members.

“If there are local elections, anyone can contest, even a non-partisan member of the public.”

Local authority elections began under the British Government in 1956. Elections were suspended in 1964 following the Emergency declared during the Indonesian Confrontation and were eventually abolished 1971.