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KUCHING, March 26 — The Election Commission’s (EC) decision to defer the automatic voter registration and lowering of the voting age to 18 until September 2022 is a mockery of the country’s democratic process, said Sarawak United People’s Party (Supp) youth secretary general Milton Foo.
He said the decision shows the inability of the commission in carrying out its duty in registering voters to ensure fair and equitable operations in undertaking elections.
Foo said both the federal and state constitution were now in place for people above the age of 18 to vote and exercise their voting right, which is the very fundamental of the foundation of democracy.
“I see no reason why EC is not ready and need to further delay the implementation of such until next year especially when the laws are already there in good place.
“The amendment to the Federal Constitution and to the State Constitution for lowering of voting age to 18 has been passed in Parliament on July 16, 2019 and in the state legislative assembly (DUN) on November 11, 2020,” he said in a statement.
Foo said the EC should do its best to execute and implement the law but not defer the law.
The EC announced yesterday that the implementation had to be delayed due to the movement control order (MCO) enforced in March 2020 which halted EC’s planning for the automatic voter registration and lowering of the voting age, which has been dubbed Undi18. — Borneo Post