COMMENT | What Undi18 means for political parties

COMMENT | On Nov 25, the government gazetted the implementation of the constitutional amendments to lower the voting age to 18 as well as automatic voter registration, better known as the “Undi18” amendments.

These amendments were passed by Parliament in 2019, in a historic move that finally brought us in step with the majority of countries in the world.

The road to achieving this has been long and took decades. Iskandar Puteri member of Parliament, Lim Kit Siang, had in his winding-up speech in Parliament in 1971 had put forth the proposal to lower the voting age to 18. He also, at that time, suggested that an all-party committee be set up to review the proposal.

Much later, groups such as Undi 18 renewed the calls to lower the voting age. The clamour by the general populace for this particular reform led to Pakatan Harapan promising to amend the Constitution in its manifesto.

This ultimately led to the 2019 amendments, which were passed unanimously by Parliament.

According to the gazette, the amendments will come into operation...