Malaysian lawmakers okay bringing down voting age to 18

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - A lower house of Malaysian parliament on Thursday approved a constitutional amendment bill seeking to bring down the voting age from 21 to 18, local media reported.

“The Constitution [Amendment] Bill 2019 to lower the voting age was passed with a total of 211 votes in Parliament,” Kuala Lumpur-based daily The Star reported.

The amendment still has to be debated and passed in the upper house of the parliament before it can become law.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told the parliament that the “political awareness among youths has increased with their looking forward in terms of thinking and maturity in line with the progress of the country”.

The constitutional amendment bill required a two-thirds majority of at least 148 votes from the 222-seat parliament. All the 211 members of parliament present in the house voted in favor of the bill.

The Malaysian premier said that 7.8 million new voters would be included into the electoral roll until 2023.

“These people are exposed to extensive information, mass media influence and advancement of information technology, which make them smart, mature in their thinking, self-reliant and more informed,” said Mahathir, who is world’s oldest politician serving any country.

In 2018 general elections, Malaysia had 14.9 million voters which are set to be increased by 50% in next elections.

Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy where king is head of state and prime minister is head of government with a parliamentary democracy at federal and state levels -- 13 provinces and two federal territories.