POLITICAL parties will be keen to field more younger candidates in the next general election to take advantage of automatic voter registration and the lower voting age, said analysts.

Even if the new voting age provision is not ready in time for the next polls, parties will still field a higher percentage of young candidates but given tougher seats.

Tasmania University’s Asian Studies professor James Chin said parties usually field young candidates in seats which are normally not winnable to give them experience.

“Most political parties will put up younger candidates just for show. They usually give them seats that cannot be won or are very difficult to win. In the next elections, most parties will do it again,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The voting age for Malaysians was lowered from 21 to 18 and was gazetted last year. The age for election candidacy was also lowered and an automatic voter registration system was also put into place.

The Election Commission (EC), however, said it needs time to streamline the data between the National Registration Department and the electoral roll to avoid any technical mishap. This is expected to be ready earliest by July.

Around three to five million youths are expected to be added to the electoral roll via automatic registration.

However, it is still not clear if all these will benefit political parties, said Chin.

The youth market is unpredictable and from past studies, they’re not really interested in politics as a whole, he said.

“We do not know what the youth market is like. Previous studies have suggested it is very difficult to get young people out to vote as they are more interested in other stuff,” he said.

Advantage PAS, Umno

Singapore Institute of International Affairs senior fellow Oh Ei Sun agrees and said urban youth are dissuaded from politics as most of them voted for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the last elections, only for the coalition to be booted out after 22 months of ruling.

“The problem is many urban young voters are not interested in coming out to vote. They have somewhat of an aversion to politics, especially after PH was easily toppled.

“Why bother? They voted for credible candidates before but at the end of the day, the candidates got toppled by people who lost in the elections,” he said.

Oh, however, said if the new rules come into play in the next elections, the biggest winners will be PAS and Umno as the number of youths in rural areas outnumber urban areas.

“Primarily, it will benefit PAS and Umno. The three million new voters coming in, most of them would be among the rural areas.

“Even though they are young and youthful, their voting patterns tend to be conservative. Umno and PAS primarily will benefit and, of course, Bersatu too.”

Both Umno and PAS already have the means to attract youth compared to PH parties, he said.

“These new voters are a disadvantage for the progressive front. PAS and Umno especially will be able to mobilise these young voters as young as 18.

“PAS with their schools have brainwashed them since young. They have good machinery and they will mobilise these young voters,” Oh said.

GE15 soon

Ilham Centre executive director Mohamad Hisommudin Bakar said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will not wait until July to call for elections after the voting age has been lowered as he needs a proper mandate as soon as possible.

“The government needs to dissolve Parliament and have elections after the Covid-19 situation improves.

“They need to get the people’s mandate soon, they will not wait for anything else,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Parties will be more inclined to field experienced candidates, especially in GE15, in which a close fight is expected between Perikatan Nasional and PH.

“The candidate is very important to the party for elections. They are basing it upon their candidate to win the elections.

“There are also other things to be taken into consideration like the candidates’ influence and financial capabilities, so not all of them will be inclined to field young candidates,” Hisommudin said.

The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in a constitutional amendment pushed for by t

Former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman pushed for the constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 21 to 18.

The 28-year-old lawmaker was later sacked from Bersatu and has formed his own youth-based party, Muda. Muda has yet to be registered by the Registrar of Societies and the party has pushed for legal action. – December 28, 2020.