Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 21): The government will not appeal against a Kuching High Court decision which ordered the Election Commission (EC) and government to implement Undi18 by Dec 31 this year.

De Facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said at the Dewan Rakyat this morning that the government will abide by the High Court's order and that they will “try our best” to implement it by then. 

He said this was decided in a Cabinet meeting earlier this month. 

"The Cabinet has decided not to appeal the High Court decision," he said, responding to a question posed by Gobind Singh Deo (PH-Puchong), who asked about Undi18 and the steps the government is taking to implement it. 

According to the judgment by the High Court, Undi18 and the automatic voter registration system were supposed to be done together by Dec 31. 

To this, Wan Junaidi said they would have to make a constitutional amendment if they were to implement both at separate times. 

Wan Junaidi was responding to a query from Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who asked if Undi18 can be implemented first before the automatic voter registration. 

“The government decided that there is no need to amend and we will try our best to implement both by the end of the year, we will abide by the court decision,” he said. 

On Sept 3, the Kuching High Court via a judicial review ordered the federal government to lower the voting age to 18 years of age by Dec 31 this year.

Judicial Commissioner Alexander Siew How Wai said in his judgement that Section 3(a) of the Federal Constitution, which is part of the constitutional amendment to lower the voting age in Malaysia from 21 to 18 years old, would have to come into operation as soon as possible.

He also quashed the government's decision to defer its implementation to after September 2022.

The initial legal action was brought by five affected youths from the Sarawak NGO Undi Sarawak.

The five youths are Ivan Alexander Ong, Viviyen Desi George, Tiffany Wee Ke Ying, Chang Swee Ern and Sharifah Maheerah Syed Haizir, all of whom are between the ages of 18 to 20.

They had brought the legal action against then prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the EC and the government.

The constitutional amendment had been passed in 2019 and was gazetted.

For more Parliament stories, click here.

Edited BySurin Murugiah
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