18-year-olds can only be registered as voters in two years' time - EC

Youths aged 18 now will still have to wait another two years before they can be registered as voters.

Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Azmi Sharom said even though the Dewan Rakyat in July had passed the Bill to amend the Federal Constitution to lower the voting age to 18, it does not mean that youths of that age can register as voters right away.

Explaining this in an exclusive interview with Bernama News today, Azmi said the EC needed time to set up the automatic voter registration system.

"The automatic registration will be implemented within a year and a half, maybe two years,” he said.

Azmi said the two-year period would also be necessary as the EC needed to prepare for the millions of additional voters, ensure sufficient polling centres and channels, as well as buy more ballot boxes and train more EC officials.

The turnout in the next general election is expected to reach over 22 million, compared with 14.9 million in the last general election in 2018, he said.

In addition to lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, the amendments also lowered the eligible age of electoral candidates to 18 and enabled automatic registration of voters by the Election Commission.

- Bernama