EC: Constitution must be amended to lower voting age

PUTRAJAYA: Lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 cannot be done immediately as the Federal Constitution needs to be amended first, says the Election Commission (EC).

Article 119(1) of the Federal Constitution states that the minimum voting age is 21.

“The EC merely carries out its duties based on existing laws. Any proposal to lower the voting age will require changes to the laws, in this case, the Constitution.

“Therefore, such process will take time so it cannot be implemented so soon,” EC voter registration division secretary Yusniati Ishak told reporters yesterday.

Recently, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said the Government intended to lower the voting age from 21 to 18.

The proposal was also one of Pakatan Harapan’s pledges in its 14th General Election manifesto.

Earlier, Yusniati led an EC briefing on the electoral process with nongovernmental organisations and statutory bodies at the EC headquarters here.

Among the participants were the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0), Engage – a Malaysian organisation working to promote democracy, human rights and citizen participation, and the National Political Thinkers Club (KPPN).

The participants praised the EC for opening its doors to civil society and NGOs to engage with the commission in working towards improving the electoral system.

“We feel this is a good move by the EC to engage with NGOs and getting them to understand the electoral process better.