KUCHING: Three youths have lost their bid to exercise their right to vote in this Saturday’s Sarawak state election.

       Kuching High Court Judicial Commissioner Alexander Siew dismissed a judicial review application by Avril Clarice Chin Ning, 18, and 19-year-olds Ivan Alexander Ong and Addam Johanson Jeremy Shayne against the Registrar of Electors for Sarawak and the Election Commission seeking a declaration that they are citizens entitled to vote in any election held after Dec 15 this year.

       Siew held that automatic voter registration, which would come into effect along with Undi18 – which lowers the voting age to 18 – on Dec 15, did not mean instantaneous voter registration upon attaining the age of 18.

       He said under the new election regulations to come into operation after Dec 15, there was a process to be followed before qualified persons were registered as voters on the electoral roll.

       “The main difference is that, unlike the current system, under the new system there is no need for a person to apply to be registered – automatic in that sense,” he said in his ruling yesterday.

       The applicants had sought to quash the Election Notice which set polling on Dec 18 and the Electoral Roll Notice gazetted in the second quarter of this year.

       They also sought an order compelling the respondents to take urgent steps to ensure that 18- to 20-year-olds are included in the supplementary electoral roll for the state election.

       With the new voter registration system coming into effect on Dec 15, Siew said the earliest 18- to 20-year-olds could be registered would be sometime in January next year.

       Even if the state election was pushed to Jan 2 – the latest it can be held within 60 days of the state legislative assembly’s dissolution on Nov 3 – there would be insufficient time to verify that those aged 18 to 20 in December were qualified to be on the electoral roll, he said.

       The applicants’ counsel Clement Wong said even though the application was dismissed, it served to determine that automatic voter registration did not mean immediate.