MIRI – The high court has dismissed an application by three youths seeking judicial review to allow Undi18 voters to partake in the December 18 Sarawak polls.
Judicial commissioner Alexander Siew today ruled the applicants failed to satisfy the conditions to secure leave to initiate the proceedings.
On December 9, Clarice Chin, Alexander Ong and Johanson Jeremy – all 18 years old – had tried to secure judicial review at the Kuching High Court so that others their age and those eligible for automatic voter registration can vote in the 12th Sarawak election.
They had filed their application in the Kuching court complex via lawyers Clement Wong, Simon Siah and George Lo.
They had asked for judicial review against the decision by the Elections Commission and Registrar of Elections for Sarawak to not include the new electoral roll that would allow them to vote on polling day.
They are seeking a declaration from the high court that all 18-year-old voters and automatically registered voters can cast their ballots after December 15 this year following the government gazette passed recently.
They wanted the electoral roll for this upcoming Sarawak election to be updated to include the new voters.
Wong told reporters that the Agong had already instructed that December 15 be the date to implement the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 as well as the automatic registration of those not yet registered as voters.
“The new voters should therefore be allowed to vote in the December 18 Sarawak polls as they are entitled to.
“The ruling government of GPS could have waited for the state of emergency to end on February 2 that would have enabled the new voters to exercise their right to vote.
“However, the GPS pushed for an election this year and that had denied the new voters their rights,” he said. – The Vibes, December 13, 2021
