ONCE supportive of the Undi 18 bill to lower the voting age, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said today the party now agrees with postponing its implementation until after September next year.

The Marang MP said the right to vote should depend on a person’s maturity and not their age.  

“PAS agrees with the postponement by the Election Commission because it is important to have mature voters on the electoral roll.

“Voting must depend on maturity. It can happen at 16 years’ old, 18… it may even happen when you are 25 years’ old.

“There are some people who are 40 years’ old, but are still not mature,” he told reporters at a press conference in Kuala Terengganu.

Hadi was commenting on EC’s announcement yesterday that the implementation of Undi 18 would be deferred to September 2022 at the earliest.

The EC blamed movement controls against the Covid-19 spread as the prime reason for the delay.

The new deadline is more than a year later than promised by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Takiyuddin Hassan, who originally said the new law would be implemented by July this year.

The EC’s announcement caused a storm of protests, including on Twitter, where people have vented their anger at the commission and the Perikatan Nasional government, using the hashtag #PNipu to refer to the ruling coalition as liars.

Hadi said said that postponement will not affect the Islamist party. 

“Most importantly, we want a mature rakyat that will pick a mature government.

“If the rakyat is immature, they will pick an immature government.”

In 2019 before the Undi 18 bill was passed, PAS had supported it and even said one of its MPs would table a private member’s bill for an amendment to let 18-year-olds stand as election candidates.

The minimum voting age was lowered to 18 from 21 previously after the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 was passed by the Dewan Rakyat on July 16, 2019, swiftly followed by the Dewan Negara on July 25, 2019.

Meanwhile, Hadi said PAS is still with PN and Muafakat Nasional. 

“If Umno wants to go solo that you have to ask them. It’s up to them. 

“We are moving towards straight fights. We do not want the rakyat to be split.”

He was commenting on Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan’s remarks that Umno is currently negotiating the division of seats with its MN partner PAS.

Hadi said the most important thing is to be able to form a fair and strong government.

“This is because the current government merely has a simple majority.

“However, our priority is to be fair. Even if we win two-thirds majority but we are not fair, and just to remain in power, it is meaningless.” – March 26, 2021.