The DAP secretary-general said such narratives were “completely not true”.

“The narrative that is being played out right now is that having local government elections would give the Chinese and DAP control over the cities,” he said at a forum titled “Political Stability in a Hung Parliament”.

Such narratives made it difficult to push for local government elections as it would immediately turn into a political issue, Loke said.

He went on to say that a majority of those who were residing in opposition-controlled cities were Malays and this was something that needed to be impressed upon Perikatan Nasional.

“We need to convince them that democracy at the local level is not at the expense of the Malays.”

In February, local government development minister Nga Kor Ming said the unity government had no plans to introduce local council elections as it wanted to prioritise matters such as road safety and cleaner public toilets.

Local council elections, previously a mainstay, were suspended in the 1960s during the Emergency Proclamation following the Malaysia-Indonesia Confrontation.

In 1976, the government passed the Local Government Act which led to the abolishment of local council elections.

DAP had over the years championed the return of local council elections. In 2019, the Kuala Lumpur Federal Territories DAP Convention passed a resolution calling for the restoration of local council elections.

However, when Pakatan Harapan came to federal power in 2018, then housing and local government minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said the nation “could not afford” to hold local government elections.