Undi18: Rock the vote!

Undi18 is a Constitutional amendment which allows for automatic voter registration, lowers the voting age from 21 to 18, and makes 18 the minimum age for Malaysian citizens to contest in federal and state elections.

IN response to a constantly changing political climate and uncertainties caused by the outbreak of Covid-19, young Malaysians are taking control of their future by claiming a bigger presence in politics and policymaking.

One barrier to political participation among youth is the delay in the implementation of Undi18, a Constitutional amendment which allows for automatic voter registration (AVR), lowers the voting age from 21 to 18, and makes 18 the minimum age for Malaysian citizens to contest in federal and state elections.

“I believe that Undi18 can definitely be implemented before the next election if there is enough political will.

“However, as the electoral roll is only updated every three months, I don’t think young people will be able to vote if an election is called within this year,” says Undi18 movement co-founder Qyira Yusri.

However, if Malaysia lowers the voting age now, and elections are called next year onwards, there will “definitely will be enough time” for young people to register to vote even if AVR is not yet introduced, says Qyira.

If the new administration doesn’t make Undi18 a priority, it would indicate bad faith towards youths, she adds.

“The first time they [the government] announced that Undi18 will be delayed, immediately young people mobilised on the streets to protest.

“And we also supported young people across the country to sue the government, compelling them to implement it as soon as possible.

“Clearly Undi18 is a hotly contested reform and something that is actually very easy for the government to implement so there shouldn’t be any barriers holding them back,” she says.

A long delay

On July 16, 2019, the Undi18 motion to amend the Federal Constitution was passed unanimously with 211 votes in the 222-member Dewan Rakyat, and with bipartisan support. It was then approved by the Dewan Negara on July 25 the same year and gazetted two months later on Sept 10, 2019. With Undi18, the total number of voters (including new young voters and previously unregistered voters) is expected to increase from 14.9 million in 2018 to 22.7 million by 2023, when GE15 is due.

However, from 2019 there has been scant progress.

The initial plan, as assured by former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan, was for Undi18 to be implemented in July this year.

However in March, the Election Commission announced that the lowering of the minimum voting age and the AVR can only be done after Sept 1, 2022. The reason given was that the implementation of Undi18 and its necessary procedures was hindered by the movement control order, which was introduced to curb Covid-19 infections.

Furthermore, Dewan Negara president Tan Sri Dr Rais Yatim explained that although the voting age has been lowered to 18 in the Federal Constitution, the Elections Act 1958 still needs to be amended before Undi18 can be implemented. Former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin previously said that the obstacle to implementation was not due to Perikatan Nasional but rather the constraints faced by the EC.

In April, Takiyuddin reiterated the Perikatan government’s commitment, saying that its Cabinet had unanimously agreed to implement the lowering of the voting age “as soon as possible”.

At the moment, the AVR process appears to be one of the factors slowing down the implementation process. However, Qyira argues that legally, the government can still allow 18-year-olds to register to vote even without AVR by using the existing voter registration systems such as going to the post office or even online registration.

The founders of the NGO Undi18 have taken the issue to court. They argue that approximately 1.2 million youths between the ages of 18 and 20 by July this year would be affected if an election were to take place anytime before September 2022.

“We have launched two judicial reviews, one in Kuala Lumpur and another in Kuching, that are currently pending a decision. Once the court comes out with a decision, and if it sides with us, they will have to compel the government to implement Undi18 as early as it can,” says Qyira.

“The fact that the previous Prime Minister [Muhyiddin] said that they were interested in implementing Undi18 earlier rather than later shows that it is not a matter of technicality or even Covid-19 but really just political will,” she says.

Muhyiddin’s failed Aug 13 offer to secure bipartisan support included lowering the voting age to 18 without waiting for the implementation of AVR, which may take time.

“We will not forget and will continue to keep the government accountable for these reforms. It’s not something the people should have to beg for, it’s something that we are owed,” says Qyira.