DBKL locks down Dataran for 48 hours

Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) will enforce a 48 hour lock down on Dataran Merdeka from 6am tomorrow morning.

In a statement late this evening, Kuala Lumpur mayor Ahmad Fuad Ismail said restriction will be enforced based on Local Government (Dataran Merdeka) (Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur) By-Laws 1992 and Section 65 of the Local Government Act 1976.

Ahmad Fuad (right)said the restriction will be lifted at 6am on Sunday morning.

The short one-paragraph statement was issued late this evening.

This comes just 24 hours after a meeting between Ahmad Fuad and Bersih 2.0's steering committee broke down.

Yesterday, Ahmad Fuad had urged Bersih to move its Bersih 3.0 rally  away from Dataran Merdeka, citing security concerns and public order.

However, Bersih is adamant on holding the rally at Dataran Merdeka because it was too late to change venues as many of its supporters may not receive the instruction in time. 

Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan said that there will be a bigger problem for the authorities if the group had to turn away people from Dataran Merdeka and re-direct them to Stadium Merdeka, which is about a kilometre away.

When informed about the matter, the student groups that are currently occupying Dataran Merdeka said they will not budge unless threatened.

Another group, Occupy Dataran, which has joined the student's sit-in - now in its 13th day - said they will convene a meeting a midnight before deciding on their next move.