THOSE aged 18-21 and newly registered voters cannot participate in the Sarawak polls on December 18, although the automatic voter registration and lowering of the voting age to 18 will come into force three days prior, on December 15.

Lawyer Cherishe Ng said this is because the Election Commission (EC) will not have enough time to update the third quarter electoral roll.

“This means that (the) Sarawak polls is the last time our 18-year-olds will miss out on polls,” she said in an online post.

Ng is PKR’s pick for the urban seat of Batu Lintang in Kuching.

There are about 135,000 youth aged between 18 and 20 in Sarawak.

“Unless EC performs a miracle, we will not be seeing our 18 to 21-year-olds vote this time,” said Ng, who is the daughter of PKR’s former Padungan assemblyman, Dominique Ng.

The EC has announced that the electoral roll used for the upcoming state elections is the one updated on November 2, following a meeting to fix polling dates in Kuching on November 24.

In this electoral roll, 1.25 million individuals are eligible to vote in the state elections, comprising 1.22 million ordinary voters, armed forces personnel and their spouses (12,585), police personnel and their spouses (10,458) and absentee voters (113).

A government gazette – dated November 25 and signed by Chief Secretary to the Government Mohd Zuki Ali – stated that the king has appointed December 15 as the date on which the Federal Constitution amendment to allow 18-year-olds to vote and implement automatic voter registration will come into effect.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by subsection 1(2) of the Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong appoints December 15 as the date on which section 3 of the Act comes into operation.”

Section 3 of the Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019 allows the amendment to set the minimum voting age to 18 from 21 and for automatic voter registration.

The Kuching High Court had ordered the EC and government to implement Undi18 by December 31 on September 6.

Judicial commissioner Alexander Siew How Wai made the decision after allowing a judicial review application from five youth, who urged the government to immediately implement the amendments to the Federal Constitution. – December 2, 2021.