SABAH TODAY

BY PHOONG JIN ZHE
COMMENT: I am utterly disappointed after reading the news regarding the Election Commission’s announcement on delaying the implementation of the Undi 18 bill including the automatic voter registration. This is totally ridiculous, unacceptable and a disgrace to Malaysia.

2. The Undi 18 bill was a national consensus as the Parliament unanimously passed the bill in July 2019 with 211 Members of Parliament voted in favour of the bill and no MP opposed the bill.
3. Apart from showing the EC is incapable and inefficient, this is clearly a politically motivated decision as the Election Commission had sufficient time which was more than a year to prepare for the implementation after the Senate passed the bill on the 25th of July in 2019.
4. Previously, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan promised on the 3rd of November 2020 that both the 18 year old voting age and automatic voter registration would be implemented latest by July 2021.
5. The Election Commission using the excuse of the Movement Control Order (MCO) is ridiculous and unacceptable. This is an obvious act of disrespecting the rights of our youths and this is also clearly a betrayal to the consensus achieved by both houses in the Parliament.
6. After prohibiting the Parliament from sittings, the Perikatan National regime has now gone to a further extent to oppress the voices of the public, particularly our youth. The Election Commission and the PN government must explain for the delay and MCO is clearly an unacceptable reason, it is obvious that there is a hidden agenda behind this.
7. I call on all young people to stand up and protest against this decision by the EC. On social media or publicly, let’s rise and tell the government how disappointed we are. Since the bill was approved through a bipartisanship effort, I urge all MPs especially those who are currently part of the PN and BN government to state their stance. Moreover, the Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers should resign if they are unable to implement the bill as promised because this shows how much of a hypocrite they are for voting for it before this but delaying the implementation on purpose.

• Phoong Jin Zhe Is Luyang Assemblyman, DAPSY Sabah Chief as well as DAPSY National Publicity Secretary