KUALA LUMPUR: Now that the Constitution Amendment Bill to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 has been passed by the Dewan Rakyat with unanimous bipartisan support, the task ahead for the Election Commission (EC) is to hold engagement sessions with the stakeholders to enforce it, according to its chairman Azhar Azizan Harun.
He said yesterday’s development showed political maturity in Malaysia.
“It is a landmark development in Malaysian politics and I hope the trend will continue. After this, the EC will hold engagement sessions with all stakeholders (on the lowering of the voting age),” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.
He said the EC would also meet the government agencies that will be involved, such as the National Registration Department.
“An awareness campaign will also be held to get Malaysians to update their addresses,” he said.
Azhar said the cost of running elections would also go up as the number of voters was expected to increase to over 22 million come the 15th general election (GE15), as compared to 14.9 million in GE14 last year.
All the 211 MPs present in the house voted for the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 that seeks to lower the voting age to 18.
The Dewan Rakyat has 222 members. It would have only required 148 votes for the bill to have been passed.
Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof announced that no MP present voted against the bill or abstained from voting.
Besides lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, the Bill also seeks to lower, from 21 to 18, the eligible age to contest elections and serve as MPs and state assemblymen, as well as automatic voter registration. - Bernama
