How soon is soon, govt asked on Undi18 implementation
Putrajaya has been urged to provide a timeline for when the voting age will be lowered to 18.
This is after de facto Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan said the Election Commission (EC) was working to implement Undi18 "soon".
The Young Voters Association...
Putrajaya has been urged to provide a timeline for when the voting age will be lowered to 18.
This is after de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan said the Election Commission (EC) was working to implement Undi18 "soon".
The Young Voters Association, also known as the Undi18 movement, said the government must also explain what technical challenges are impeding lowering the voting age.
"The Undi18 group still insists on further clarification from Takiyuddin and the government to provide a clearer timeline of the bill’s implementation," it said in a statement.
Last month, the EC postponed the implementation of lowering the voting age together with automatic voter registration (AVR) to sometime after September 2022.
It said the movement control order had affected its planning and preparations and that it would have a preliminary report ready by September this year.
However, Takiyuddin, in a statement, said the EC was speeding up its efforts following a cabinet decision to lower the voting age soon.
Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) pro-tem vice president Lim Wei Jiet said the Perikatan Nasional government should commit to implementing Undi18 no later than July this year as was previously planned.
"The people should not accept any date after July 2021.
"This is as even if Undi18 comes into force in July, the process of registering 18 to 20-year-olds will take months and they may not get to vote in the 15th general election," he said.
Meanwhile, Bersih echoed the call for a firm timeline, saying that the current ambiguity makes the government’s assurances unconvincing.
It also urged the government and the EC to explain Takiyuddin’s assertions that the voting age can be lowered soon, just a month after the EC said it couldn’t be done.
“Was the government deliberately stonewalling Undi18’s implementation to deny the vote to 18-year-olds? Was the EC chairperson following cabinet directives to delay Undi18’s implementation? It raises important questions on whether the EC is still an independent body,” it said in a statement today.
The electoral watchdog also accused EC chairperson Abdul Ghani Salleh of incompetence for failing to implement Undi18 in a timely manner, and said the chairperson should resign.
“Bersih urges that he step down honourably now before his poor reputation brings about EC’s downfall again,” it said.
GE15 is slated to be held once the state of emergency is lifted in August.
It is currently unclear whether the EC will still lower the voting age and implement AVR simultaneously as planned or allow 18-year-olds to register to vote under existing mechanisms.
Under the current process, the electoral roll is updated every quarter and the whole process of voter registration can take up to four months.
According to the EC, about 1.2 million youths can become voters once the voting age is lowered.
Meanwhile, both the Undi18 group and Lim thanked Youth and Sports Minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican for his efforts to lobby the cabinet to speed up the lowering of the voting age.
Reezal was among those who opined that delays in implementing AVR should not hinder the lowering of the voting age.
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