‘Aye’ to review voting age

PUTRAJAYA: Thirty-two of the 51 registered political parties in the country agree with the proposal to lower the voting age from 21 to 18, according to the Election Commission (EC).

The parties sent their representatives to the maiden meeting with EC yesterday on the voter registration exercise, said EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun.

“None of the political parties objected to the proposal,” he said after the meeting at the EC headquarters here.

The Cabinet agreed on Sept 19 to amend the Federal Constitution to lower the voting age to 18. A bill on the amendment is expected to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat next month.

Azhar said all the parties that attended the meeting also agreed with a proposal for automatic registration of voters, but wanted EC to study the process and its effect on voters.

“This is because automatic registration will be done according to the address on the identity card and there is a possibility that the voters cannot return, for example, to Kelantan or Klang to vote. That, I feel, requires an understanding of the policy but, in principle, they support the proposal,” he said.

Asked when these two proposals would be implemented, Azhar said EC required some time because it involved amendments to the Constitution.

On calls for EC to conduct another redelineation of electoral boundaries due to protests against the one done last year, he said the exercise can only be done once every eight years as provided in the Constitution. – Bernama