Exercise your democratic responsibility

ON Nov 19, more than 21 million Malaysians will be eligible to vote in the 15th General Election (GE15). This is an increase of more than six million voters compared with GE14 in 2018, when there were 14.9 million registered voters.

Among the 21 million will be 1,393,549 voters between the ages of 18 and 20. This is the first general election in which Malaysians of this age group are being allowed to vote after Parliament passed the Undi18 law to lower the minimum voting age from 21.

It feels like much longer than four years since we last had a general election. Probably because we’ve had three different governments led by three different prime ministers in that period.

After all the politicking, the Sheraton Move, pandemic panicking and lots of lockdowns, it is surely a relief to have the mandate returned to us so we have a chance to give clear direction to our representatives about this country’s future.

And yet, it’s still not that simple thanks to different states making different decisions about their assemblies.

While Perak, Pahang and Perlis will hold concurrent state polls, the Pakatan Harapan-led states of Negri Sembilan, Penang and Selangor, and the PAS-governed states of Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu have not dissolved their state assemblies.

And Johor, Melaka, Sabah and Sarawak held state elections recently.

But don’t let any of this confuse matters and stop you from coming out to vote.

We still have clear cut procedures to guide us: Nomination Day is Nov 5 and political parties and aspiring candidates will have the usual 14 days to woo the hearts and minds of voters in 222 parliamentary seats nationwide.

Malaysians overseas have until today to submit postal vote applications, while those under the agency/organisation category have until Oct 26; all can do so at myspr.spr.gov.my.

With automatic registration, Malaysians who turn 18, or those who have not registered, are automatically entered into the database.

And as usual, all the political parties are going all-out to reach as many voters as possible to encourage them to turn out on Nov 19.

NGOs, too, are working hard to do the same with some organising postal votes and even getting Malaysians living abroad to bring back postal votes.

Others are arranging local transportation and car-pooling and helping Sabahans and Sarawakians working in the peninsula to travel back home to vote.

And with the weatherman predicting heavy rains, there are even people arranging to have 4WD vehicles on standby to ensure floods cause no hiccups.

Basically, voting has been made as easy as possible for all of us so there’s no excuse not to carry out this most important of civic duties.

So, exercise your democratic responsibility and come out to vote on Nov 19.