First local govt polls delayed by month

Published on: Friday, October 26, 1962

Text Size:

NORTH BORNEO NEWS & SABAH TIMES - (Friday, October 26, 1962) - JESSELTON, Thursday. – The first ever Local Government elections which were to be held on November 18 this year have been now postponed to December 16, according to Mr J. H. MaCartney, Secretary for Local Government, this afternoon.

Nomination Day will now be November 26.

Mr MaCartney said the Government had decided to order postponement of Local Government Elections for a period of four weeks after considering an application by the Sabah Alliance Party, comprising the United Sabah National Organisation, the United National Kadazan Organisation and the Borneo Utara National Party.

The new date for elections would be Sunday, December 16 this year, he added. Nominations will be received by returning Officer on Monday, November 26, between 11am and 12noon.

The amending Regulations will be issued tomorrow in an Extraordinary Issue of the Official Gazette, Mr Macartney said.

Unanimous Decision

The Sabah Alliance Party Preparatory Committee last Monday unanimously decided to approach the Government and request it to postpone the Local Government Elections to early April next year, and that when elections are held at that time it should be for all District Councils in the country.

The reason given by the Sabah Alliance Party Preparatory Committee for the request to postpone the elections was that the Alliance would not have sufficient time to register an Alliance election symbol nor was there sufficient time for the Alliance to make all the necessary arrangements for the elections in view of the fact that all the major parties which were to have contested the, elections had now agreed to an Alliance.

Heavily Engaged

Another reason put forward by the Alliance was that all the Alliance leaders have at present been heavily engaged in work connected with the Lansdowne Inter-Governmental Committee and there did not seem to be chance of the work becoming less in the coming weeks and month’s.

According to an Alliance press statement it would be impossible for these leaders to give fully of their time to both the elections and the work of the Inter-Governmental Committee.

It is understood that the request by the Sabah Alliance Party was considered today by an Executive Council meeting. It was not known why the Government decided to postpone the elections only for four weeks while the Alliance had requested for the postponement until April next year.

A Government press statement issued by the Information Services did not give any indication or reason for a four-week postponement.