IN light of the statement made by the prime minister this evening, we would like to express our disagreement with the implementation of Undi18 being used as a political tool.

Muhyiddin Yassin said the government has agreed to implement the Undi18 bill without the implementation of the automatic voter registration (AVR) via a tabling of the constitutional amendment bill in Parliament in September, for which the prime minister hopes to get bipartisan cooperation.

The proposed bill is a tactic by the prime minister to stay in power, as bipartisan cooperation for this bill would eventually translate into a confidence vote for the prime minister. The Undi18 bill was unanimously passed as a constitutional amendment in Parliament in July 2019 and remains to be implemented more than two years later.

Undi18 asserts that the Undi18 bill, including Sections 3(a) and 3(b), can be implemented simultaneously without further delay by immediately bringing Section 3 into operation. The enforcement of AVR under Section 3(b) of the Undi18 bill merely removes the barriers to the implementation of AVR, and does not directly lead to the implementation of AVR.

Therefore, the prime minister is wrong in assuming the lowering of voting age can only be enforced through a constitutional amendment bill that separates the implementation of the lowering of voting age from AVR. Implementing Sections 3(a) and 3(b) is immediately possible and will allow all 18- to 20-year-old Malaysians able to register to vote in accordance with existing laws, while providing additional time for the Election Commission to settle the technicalities of the AVR.

#Undi18 should not be used for political manoeuvring. – August 13, 2021.

* Undi18 is a Malaysian youth movement advocating to lower the minimum voting age in Malaysia from 21 to 18 years’ old.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.