PUTRAJAYA will not appeal the Kuching High Court’s ruling to implement Undi18, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told the Dewan Rakyat today.

“The cabinet decided on September 10 not to appeal the court’s ruling,” the de facto law minister said.

Wan Junaidi was responding to a supplementary question from Gobind Singh Deo (Puchong-PH) on whether the government would comply with the court decision to implement automatic registration and to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 by December 31 and if so, what steps it was taking towards it.

On September 3, the Kuching High Court ordered Putrajaya to implement Undi18 by the end of the year to enable youth to vote in the next general election.

The court ruled that the Election Commission (EC) must take steps to implement Undi18 by December this year.

High Court judicial commissioner Alexander Siew How Wai said the EC had acted “illegally” and “irrationally” when it decided to defer the implementation of Undi 18 from July to next September.

The EC had cited the pandemic and the movement control orders to curb the spread of Covid-19 as reasons for the delay.

Wan Junaidi today said Putrajaya will comply with the court’s December 31 deadline.

He also noted that the court had ruled that letting the youth vote and automatic voter registration should be implemented together.

“It cannot be separated. We will have to amend the Federal Constitution again if we were to separate the two. 

“Therefore the government has decided to adhere to the court’s judgement and implement the two at the same time.” – September 21, 2021.