PETALING JAYA: Only Melaka and Johor have yet to amend their state constitution in line with Undi18 to lower the voting age and implement automatic voter registration.

       For Johor, a special state assembly sitting will be held as soon as possible to amend Clause 16 Section 2 of the Undang-Undang Tubuh Kerajaan Negeri Johor 1895 to be in line with the amendment made to the Federal Constitution.

       As for Melaka, following the state polls in November, it will hold its first (special) meeting of the 15th state assembly for four days from Dec 27 to 30.

       Youth-led movement Undi18 welcomed states that have given their commitment to lower the voting age and implement automatic voter registration.

       Undi18 education director and co-founder Qyira Yusri said the amendment is necessary to avoid issues between the states and the federal constitution in the future.

       “It has been approved at the federal level, so the states should also follow the same. So far, all the states have given their commitment to amend the state constitutions,” she said.

       In a federal government gazette on Dec 1, the implementation of Undi18 and automatic voter registration was gazetted and will take effect on Dec 15.

       Most of the states have already amended the constitution to accommodate the new ruling.

       On Friday, Pahang became the latest state to amend the state constitution when its state assembly passed the Pahang Government Constitution (Amendment) Enactment 2021.

       On Nov 24, at the 137th Mentris Besar and Chief Ministers meeting, all heads of state government agreed to amend their respective state constitutions to allow individuals aged 18 to contest during a general election, state election and by-election.

       “It is great that Undi18 can finally be implemented and will also enable political parties to field younger candidates in polls.

       “For youth, it will give them the chance to learn the democratic process and understand their political journey,” said Qyira.

       The Undi18 movement, co-founded in 2017 by Qyira and Tharma Pillai, also holds several outreach programmes to educate youths on democracy in the country.

       “We also organise programmes to engage with young people, which include regional programmes such as UndiSabah and UndiSarawak and others outside of the Klang Valley.

       “Even though Undi18 has yet to be implemented for the upcoming Sarawak state election, we have activated a volunteering programme to monitor online political campaigns.

       “We also recruited youths to be election observers there,” she said, adding that the idea is to engage youth in the democratic process even though they are still not allowed to vote yet.

       Undi18 was approved at the second meeting of the second session of the 14th Parliament in July 2019 but was not implemented at the time.