‘Undi18 bill unanimously passed in 2019, just awaiting implementation’

KUCHING – The Undi18 bill was unanimously passed as a constitutional amendment in Parliament in July 2019, and is only waiting to be implemented.

Undi Sarawak’s Ivan Alexander Ong told The Vibes that the bill, including Sections 3(a) and 3(b), can be implemented simultaneously without further delay by immediately bringing Section 3 into operation.

He said the enforcement of automatic voter registration (AVR) under Section 3(b) merely removes the barriers to the implementation of AVR, but does not directly lead to the implementation of AVR.

“Implementing Sections 3(a) and 3(b) is immediately possible and will allow all 18- to 20-year-old Malaysians to be able to register to vote in accordance with existing laws.

“It will at the same time provide additional time for the Election Commission (EC) to iron out the technicalities of AVR,” said Ong, who is one of five Sarawakians representing Undi Sarawak filing a judicial review against the prime minister, the federal government and the EC over the delay in the implementation of Undi18, which entails lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in a televised address yesterday said  the government will endorse the Undi18 bill without the implementation of AVR via the tabling of a constitutional amendment bill in Parliament in September.

Ong said Muhyiddin was wrong to assume that the lowering of the voting age can be enforced only through a constitutional amendment bill that separates its implementation from AVR.

“The Perikatan Nasional government had more than a year to execute the reforms that the prime minister listed out yesterday if they had sincerely intended to. 

“However, they did nothing. Only now they want to reconcile with the opposition because the prime minister and his cabinet is hanging by a thread with a thin majority.”

Ong also questioned Muhyiddin’s sincerity in implementing these reforms, which he described as daylight bribery on national television.

“It is outrageous for the prime minister to use Undi18 as one of the several bargaining chips in his political manoeuvring to gain bipartisan cooperation from the opposition.” – The Vibes, August 14, 2021