UNDI18, the youth movement that successfully advocated to reduce the minimum voting age in Malaysia from 21 to 18, is now on a mission to prepare youth and first-time voters for the 15th general election.

Its main goal is not to teach the basics on how to vote but to make sure they understand the consequences of their vote.

Co-founder and education director of Undi18, Qyira Yusri, told The Malaysian Insight they will be mobilising their machinery nationwide to prepare young and first-time voters.

“One programme we will be organising is a debate among the young political leaders of each party on different policies,” Qyira said.

“This will allow young voters to see which leader has a better understanding and solution for a certain policy.

“We also want these young leaders to impress on the youth the importance of voting and how their vote will shape the country.”

Five debates will be held across the country, with the first one scheduled before Malaysia Day.

“We have invited individuals from government and opposition parties, and the response so far has been good.”

Malaysia has 1.44 million voters aged between 18 and 20. Young voters form 6.9% of the 21.03 million in the 2021 electoral roll gazetted by the Election Commission on January 17.

Selangor has the highest number of new voters aged below 21 with 280,495, followed by Johor (176,618), and Sarawak (133,015).

Undi18 and automatic voter registration were enforced on December 15 last year.

Qyira said they have another programme lined up, called Dewan Muda Malaysia, which will see 222 youths, aged between 15 to 30, placed in all parliamentary constituencies in the country.

“These 222 individuals will be hosting workshops in their constituency to educate young voters,” she said.

She also said they are currently working on ways to make sure postal votes arrive on time.

“We learnt a lot from the recent Johor polls that most of these new young voters often don’t stay in their constituency.

“So we are now building a network with student bodies worldwide to make sure each vote makes it on time.

“During the Johor polls we managed to bring back 4,000 of the 7,000 votes of young voters who were abroad.

“This time we will try our best to get every vote in when the election is called,” Qyira said.

When asked on the group’s plan on educating rural voters, she said it will be through social media.

“Like it or not, this next general election will be a TikTok election,” she said.

“It is the fastest growing social media platform now and everyone seems to be on it. Overnight, videos on the platform tend to receive millions of views.

“We hope to make short informative videos on the election, such as what one should be aware of before casting a vote,” she said.

Calls for snap polls have been growing lately despite Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob having close to a year left in his term.

Over the weekend, political parties and coalitions were seen racing to hold their respective conventions and gatherings to prepare for the polls.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the general election should be held now because the people want a legitimate government not bound together by political schemes.

He said Umno had already decided to have the polls now and any breach will only put the party on the verge of disunity and destruction.

On Monday, just after the Umno Supreme Council meeting, Ismail was evasive when asked if the federal polls will be brought forward.

“Wait, wait,” was all that Ismail told reporters. – August 31, 2022.