Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said today, 2 December, that 18- to 20-year-old Sarawakians will not be able to participate in the state election although the federal government and the Sarawak government welcome it, reported Malay Mail.
Sarawakians will hit the polls this 18 December.
“The gazettification (sic) is just a process in order to make use of ‘Undi 18’ by January next year,” he told the online portal, stressing that the implementation will only be in effect on 3 January next year.
“The electoral roll is not as simple as that. It is just a list because we have to eliminate those who are in prison, who are mad, and those who have died.”
Wan Junaidi explained that the implementation is complicated in Sarawak because people in the state do not have to report deaths.
“As a result of that, there are names of people aged over 100 years old because nobody reported their deaths,” he said, adding that the EC will conduct checks with the families to find out whether those who are above 100 years old are still alive.
“Once this is done, only then the electoral roll can be considered as acceptable and confirmed in accordance with the regulations.”
“Once it becomes automatic next year, [you can] imagine everybody will go automatically into the list, and every quarterly, the EC will examine the list and confirm it.”
There are 1,252,014 electorates in the state so far, and it is estimated that there are 135,000 youths aged between 18 and 20, reported Malay Mail.