THERE are 1,141,749 youths aged between 18 and 20 who are eligible to vote as at June 16 this year, the Dewan Rakyat was told.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, citing figures from the Election Commission (EC), said the youth figure consists of 5.4% of the total number of eligible voters at 21,113,234.
The remaining 19,971,485 voters, which make up 94.6%, are voters aged 21 and above, she said during oral question time.
Mas Ermieyati said the EC, through the Election Academy, has organised programmes to educate voters since 2017 on the importance of democracy in Malaysia, the local election process and voting responsibilities.
She added that the implementation of Undi18 last December has seen a spike of 5.8 million eligible voters, with 1.2 million of them comprising those aged 18 to 20.
Mas Ermieyati said educating voters shouldn’t be the sole responsibility of the EC but it is also the duty of political parties across the divide to spread the awareness of the importance of voting.
Undi18, which lowers the minimum voting age from 21 to 18, came into force on Dec 15 last year.
