AN Umno leader’s assertion that teenagers lack maturity and understanding of elections is baseless and biased, Undi18 said today.

The youth movement said Jerai Umno division delegate Norma Awang came up with this statement to justify general election results not going the party’s way.

“For the record, around 5.8 million new voters were eligible to vote in the last election, when automatic registration was implemented and when the minimum voting age was lowered to 18 years.

“However, voters aged 18-20 only made up 676,000 (3.2%) of the total 21.1 million registered voters.

“The rest were people aged 21 and above, so Norma’s statement is not only baseless but also biased, just because the election result was not in the party’s favour,” the group said in a statement today.

Last night, Norma reportedly said that 18-year-olds did not have the maturity, understanding of elections, voting, the democratic system and how their ballots affected the formation of the government and its policies during a debate on Wanita Umno chief Noraini Ahmad’s policy speech at the party’s general assembly in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Undi18 said that Umno needs to reflect by reassessing the cause of the people’s rejection of the party.

The group said the Malay-based party should look for the latest strategies in attracting the support of young people, instead of pointing fingers at them.

“Every political party should celebrate democracy with the involvement of more segments of society by expanding the scope and not the opposite.

“Voter education and understanding democracy need to be applied early, especially to those who will vote for the first time and it is not limited to those who have just reached the age of 18,” Undi18 said.

The group said that young people today are more open and flexible in making judgments.

“Space and opportunities in democracy should be given to them, because the issue of a person’s maturity does not depend on age alone.

“It has been proven that there are many young people who have forged a name on the world stage in various fields,” the group added.

Undi18 successfully pressed for the amendment of article 119(1) of the Federal Constitution to reduce the minimum voting age in Malaysia from 21 to 18 years old. – January 13, 2023.