Simon Siah (left) and Ivan Alexander Ong
KUCHING (May 5): Five Sarawakian youths representing Undi Sarawak has filed a judicial review against the federal government, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the Election Commission (EC) for delaying the lowering of voting age to 18 years at the High Court here yesterday.
In a statement yesterday, the voting advocacy movement deemed the decision to delay the implementation of lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 as irrational, illegal and disproportionate.
Undi Sarawak said it is seeking for a declaration from the Court that any delay in implementing the Undi 18 Bill is unreasonable and unlawful adding that this amounts to voter suppression.
The applicants also seek to compel the named parties to enforce Section 3(a) of the Constitutional (Amendment) Act 2019 on or before July this year.
At a live press conference yesterday, 18-year-old Ivan Alexander Ong who is one of the five applicants, pointed out that the implementation of the Undi 18 Bill was important to Sarawakian youths as the state polls was slated to take place upon the conclusion of the Emergency.
“Undi Sarawak holds firm to our belief that youths between the ages of 18 and 20 are owed their constitutional right to vote. This is made more pertinent for approximately 125,000 to 135,000 Sarawakians aged 18 to 20,” he added.
The applicants’ counsel Simon Siah from Lawyer Kamek for Change (LK4C) revealed that the case management has been set for May 24.
Siah believed it is possible for them to achieve the desired result although there was not much time placed between the filing and tentative date of the election.
In July 2019, the Parliament had passed the Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019 to reduce the voting age eligibility from 21 to 18 years by amending Article 119(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution after it received broad bipartisan support from both sides of the House of Representatives. It was gazetted on September 10 the same year.
Several EC officials estimated that the Act, which would have approximately added up to 1.2 million new voters once the changes come into effect according to some political analysts’ estimates, could be implemented by mid-year.
However, EC chairman Datuk Abdullah Ghani Salleh in a statement on March 25 said that implementing the lowering of the minimum voting age to 18 and automatic voter registration can only be accomplished after Sept 1, 2022, citing constraints and difficulties due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) that began on March last year.
On April 29, minister in the Prime Minister’s Department handling the law and Parliament portfolio Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan said the commission needs to resolve legal and technical issues which include updating its software systems before it can lower the voting age.
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