THE Perikatan Nasional government must make its position clear on lowering the voting age to 18, said Pejuang Youth, after president of the Dewan Negara Rais Yatim said it was not practical to implement the law at present.

In a statement, the Pejuang pro-tem youth committee said it has been 19 months since the Undi 18 bill, officially known as Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019, was passed by the Dewan Negara in July 2019 and gazetted into law two months later.

The amendment lowers the voting age from 21 to 18.

Previously, the Election Commission (EC) had said the new voting age and automatic voter registration would be implemented from July this year.

“It is impossible that it (the voters list) is not ready. This political excuse cannot be accepted,” said Pejaung Youth.

“If there are issue then the government can find ways to overcome it to allow young people to vote and chart the way forward for the country through the ballot box.”

Last night, in an interview with Bernama, Rais said it was impractical to lower the voting age to 18 for now because of the time-consuming obstructions facing the agencies implementing the law.

He said it would take time to come up with the list of 18-year-olds eligible to vote and the constituencies in which they reside.

Rais said this would take up the resources of both the National Registration Department and the EC.

“Whether we can implement it now, the answer is no. Although it has been passed in terms of the legislature, in terms of readiness there are many gaps.”

Pejuang Youth said they rejected Rais’s contention and demanded Undi-18 be implemented at the earliest possible opportunity.

“We strongly reject Rais’s statement that has insulted the democratic process and we hope that (lowering the voting age) will take place.” – March 11, 2021.