He told FMT that there are currently no councillors to represent ratepayers, unlike other local authorities, adding that the federal territories are run by a single person who is not directly accountable to residents through direct elections.
“Even the mayor of Kuala Lumpur is bound to follow the directions of the federal territories minister,” he said.
“This concentration of power in one person is not in the spirit of good governance. It also goes against the Pakatan Harapan (PH) manifesto of democratisation of local government.”
Presently, elections are only held to pick MPs and assemblymen to administer the federal and state governments.
State governments appoint councillors to run local authorities while the minister appoints the mayor and 15 members to sit on the advisory board.
Fernandez, who is a lawyer, also suggested that other big cities like Petaling Jaya hold local government elections earlier, saying they are “more than ready”.
“This local government election song has been sung like a broken record,” he said.
He said during the Barisan Nasional administration, PH and its predecessor Pakatan Rakyat said this could only be done if they controlled the federal government.
He questioned PH’s will to do so now, given that it had been in power for 19 months.
“It is indisputable that there should be no taxation without representation, and there is no justification for not holding local government elections,” he said.
He added that any claims of racial imbalance given by some as reason for not holding such polls would be evened out by the party system of candidate selection.
He also said there were many proportionate representation models that the housing and local government ministry could use to kick-start elections in localities like Kuala Lumpur.
Last year, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said bringing back the third vote had always been the party’s stand despite Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s announcement that the government had no plans for this.
The prime minister had cited concerns of racial conflicts, saying local council elections might produce the “wrong results”.