KUALA LUMPUR: The government took another step closer to lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 after a Bill to amend the constitution was tabled for the first reading.
The Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 was tabled by the Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (pix) in the Dewan Rakyat today.
The second and third readings will also be tabled in the current parliamentary sitting.
The proposed amendment is the second one involving the Federal Constitution under the Pakatan Harapan (PH government) after its first attempt — to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners in the federation — was rejected in the last session in April.
Then, the PH government was short by only 10 votes after the Bill was put up for bloc voting by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Yusoff.
The proposed amendment to lower the voting age will also require a two third support of the Parliament (or 148 votes), something the current administration does not enjoy.
PH currently has 139 MPs of the total 222 seats, nine short of the required number for the amendment to pass.
On Wednesday, opposition lawmakers had said they would reject the motion to lower the voting age if it did not include an amendment for automatic registration.
The also demanded that the minimum age for an individual to be qualified to contest in general elections be similarly lowered to 18.
In response, Syed Saddiq had said that the government has agreed in principle to the opposition’s conditions, but that the implementation side of things needed to ironed out.
