KUCHING – The high court here today dismissed a legal action by three Sarawakian youths to exercise their voting rights under Undi18 in the 12th Sarawak election, ruling that the automatic right to vote did not mean it would be spontaneous.
Judicial commissioner Alexander Siew How Wai said under the current election regulations or the new ones that will take effect on Wednesday, there is a process to be followed before a person turning 18 years old is registered on the electoral roll.
“Automatic voter registration does not mean it is spontaneous voter registration,” he said.
The court made the ruling after dismissing the leave application for a judicial review filed by Avril Clarice Chin Ning, 18, and Ivan Alexander Ong and Addam Johanson Jeremy Shayne, both 19, against the Registrar of Electors for Sarawak and Election Commission (EC) as the respondents.
The legal action came following the gazetting of Undi18 effective Wednesday, while the Sarawak election slated for December 18 is using the electoral roll last updated on November 2.
In the application, the three youths among others sought a declaration that they would be entitled to vote in any election held after December 15 this year, to quash the Election Notice (polling set for December 18), to quash the Electoral Roll Notice gazetted in the second quarter of this year.
They have also sought a direction or an order of the nature of mandamus to compel the respondents to take urgent and immediate steps to ensure that applicants, or youth, and others entitled to vote under Article 119 of the federal constitution are included in the supplementary electoral roll for the upcoming state election and so on.
The applicants were represented by lawyers Clement Wong, George Lo, and Simon Siah while senior federal counsels Azizan Md Arshad and Ahmad Hanir Hambaly@Arwi appeared for the EC. – Bernama, December 13, 2021
