KUALA LUMPUR: The government is objecting against a legal challenge filed by 18 young adults to compel it to implement the constitutional amendments to allow 18-year-olds to vote and to be automatically registered as voters.
Lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijar, representing the young adults, told High Court judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid that they have received the Attorney-General Chambers’ (AGC) submission to object against the judicial review hearing this morning.
“We need to address some points that they raised, and we seek another date for the court to hear us,” he said.
Kamal responded by saying that he will hear the young adults’ bid to commence judicial review on May 6, adding that this is a public interest case.
“Submissions to be served by Tuesday (May 4),” he said.
Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan and Azizan Md Arshad appeared for the government, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and the Election Commission (EC),who are named as respondents.
Shamsul later told reporters the AGC is objecting to the young adults’ legal challenge on grounds that the application is premature.
“As for now, the Federal Constitution has been amended to allow 18-year-olds to cast their votes and to run for office. However, under election laws and regulations, it is still stated ’21-year-old’,” he said.
He said the election laws and regulations need to be amended to reflect the amendment in the Federal Constitution.
The 18-year-olds are seeking to quash Perikatan Nasional’s decision not to implement the Undi18 amendments by July.
They claim the decision to delay enforcement is unreasonable, as it denies their rights to be voters by July.-FMT