Voting needs maturity, Hadi supports Undi18 delay

 

Voting needs maturity, said PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, while supporting a delay in lowering the voting age to 18.

He said voters who are not mature will pick an immature government.

"Voting depends on maturity, don't just rely on being 18, there must be maturity. We must not be influenced by the West.

"In Islam, we speak of sinnu rusydi, the age of maturity. Maturity can come at 16, 18, can happen at 25, and some people are 40 but are not mature.

"Unfortunately, we follow Western democracy, (where voting rights are) based on age, not maturity," he said.

He said PAS supports the delay in lowering the voting age, adding that it would not have any impact.

Hadi was previously one of the MPs who unanimously voted in favour of the Undi18 amendment in 2019.

Yesterday, the Election Commission said it was delaying the implementation of both Undi18 and automatic voter registration to after September next year.

This is despite PAS' de facto Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan saying it was on track for implementation in July.

The EC said the movement control order had affected its planning and preparations to lower the voting age.

Critics, however, argue there is no reason why the existing voter registration system cannot be extended to 18-year-olds.

Meanwhile, PAS Youth said earlier that it was disappointed by the delay.

Its Youth wing chief Khairil Nizam Khirudin said they understood that the EC needed more time to implement both automatic voter registration and Undi18.

As such, they have offered to help fast-track the process.

"PAS Youth is offering to cooperate with all government agencies involved to ensure a thorough preparation to hasten the process," Khairil said. - Mkini