Over 1.1 million youths eligible to vote as of June, Dewan Rakyat told

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 1,141,749 youths aged 18 to 20 are eligible to vote as of June 16, the Dewan Rakyat was told.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, citing figures from the Election Commission (EC), said the figure makes up 5.4% of the total number of 21,113,234 eligible voters.

The remaining 19,971,485 or 94.6% of the figure are aged 21 and above, she said during Oral Question Time in Parliament on Tuesday (Aug 2).

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Mas Ermieyati said the EC, through its Election Academy, had organised programmes to educate voters since 2017 in an effort to spread awareness of the importance of democracy, the election process and voting responsibilities.

She noted that voter education was not the EC’s responsibility alone, as all political parties had a duty to spread awareness on the importance of voting.

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“I will need all of the MPs' help so that together, we can cooperate and spread awareness to encourage people to come out and vote,” she added.

Undi18, which set the minimum voting age to 18 from 21 previously, came into force on Dec 15.