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PETALING JAYA: A non-governmental organization that supports lowering the minimum voting age to 18 years plans to take the government to court for what it considers a “failure” to publish a constitutional amendment.
Undi18 co-founder Qyira Yusri told the FMT that the reasons given by the Electoral Commission (EC) for delaying the implementation of policies to lower the voting age and have automatic voter registration were “unacceptable and ridiculous.”
“During the Covid-19 spike last November, Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan confirmed that automatic voter registration for 18-year-olds was on track to be implemented in July 2021,” he said.
“It makes no sense that the EC is talking now about delays and the challenges it faces, after almost a year and a half of pandemic,” he added.
In a statement earlier today, EC President Abdul Ghani Salleh said the automatic 18-year-old voter registration was expected to be delayed until after September 2022.
He said movement restrictions due to the pandemic had disrupted the EC’s preparations to implement the law that was passed in Parliament in July 2019.
Meanwhile, electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 said the delay was “very disappointing” for the millions of young voters who were looking forward to voting for the first time.
“Although the reason given was movement restrictions, we cannot understand how this can delay the implementation of Undi18, as much of the work is data processing,” said NGO president Thomas Fann.
He said the EC must explain in detail why the implementation took more than three years.
“Failure to do so will only fuel public suspicion that the EC is deliberately delaying Undi18 at the behest of the ruling party,” he said.
Meanwhile, the MUDA political party also said it would challenge the EC’s decision to delay Undi18.
“This excuse makes no sense and makes the rakyat look ridiculous,” he said through lawyer Lim Wei Jit.
