GABUNGAN Parti Sarawak (GPS) today took more or less the same line as Umno and PAS in giving its conditional support for the government’s amendment bill to lower the voting age from 21 to 18.

“Conditional support,” was GPS whip Fadillah Yusof’s prompt reply to a question on where GPS stood on the matter of the bill.

Like Umno and PAS, GPS’ 18 MPs would vote for the bill if the government agreed to the opposition’s recommendation to introduce automatic voter registration, he said.

Fadillah said automatic registration would solve Sarawak’s perennial problem of getting the people to register to vote.

Residents in the rural hinterlands of the state, which is nearly equal in size with the peninsula, face logistical problems getting to the centres to register their names on the electoral roll.

“We need to find ways to make voting easier and more practical for the people,” Fadillah said.

Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg had said that GPS, which is neither aligned to Umno and PAS nor the ruling coalition, Pakatan Harapan would have no problem supporting the bill.

He also said said GPS would not follow PAS in demanding for compulsory voting.

“We prefer automatic registration but not compulsory voting.

“Whether they want to vote or not after that (registration), it’s up to them.

“If they decline, they can always go to sleep (on polling day),” Abang Johari said.

Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman tabled the bill to amend the federal constitution on July 4.

If passed by two-thirds of parliament, it will pave the way for almost four million young people to participate in the next state and federal elections.

PH had pledged to lower the voting age in its 2018 election manifesto.

In April, Putrajaya suffered severe embarrassment when it failed in its attempt to amend Article 1(2) of the federal constitution to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak to equal partners with the federated Malay states.

GPS MPs had abstained from voting after the government refused to insert six key words to the amendment bill which they said would properly reflect the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

Due to the abstention of 18 lawmakers, the bill fell 10 votes short of passage. – July 8, 2019.