Federal Constitution amended to lower voting age to 18.
The Dewan Rakyat created history today by passing an amendment to the Federal Constitution with more than a two-thirds majority garnered through bipartisanship.
All the 211 MPs present in the house voted for the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 that seeks to lower the voting age to 18.
The Dewan Rakyat has 222 members. It would have only required 148 votes for the bill to have been passed.
The bill secured the support of the 211 MPs after it went for bloc voting twice.
Eleven MPs were absent today.
Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof announced that no MP present voted against the bill or abstained from voting.
“Congratulations, Right Honourable Prime Minister, and congratulations to all members of this house for creating history today, exactly one year after the current Parliament went into session,” he said.
More than 60 MPs spoke during the debate on the bill, which went on for six hours after Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad tabled it for second reading at noon.
He had even written personally to each MP urging their support for the historic bill.
“For the first time in history, we have achieved bipartisanship, which is total and this is an achievement for the people of Malaysia,” he told reporters during a press conference at the Parliament lobby on Tuesday (July 16).
Dr Mahathir also thanked all parties, including the Opposition, for supporting the Pakatan Harapan Government’s second bid to amend the Constitution.
Dr Mahathir said that those who are above the age of 18 who have yet to register under the old system, would also be eligible to vote.
“Yes, we will register them automatically,” he added.
He also said that the Government at this point does not plan to make voting compulsory during general elections.
“Early studies have shown that countries that have made it compulsory to vote did not get 100% voters (turnout).
“Singapore only achieved 93.56%, Australia 91.89% followed by Belgium (88.3%) and Austria (80%).
“The Government will instead increase awareness of voters to encourage them to go out and cast their votes,” he said in his winding-up debate on Tuesday (July 16).
In addition to lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, the amendments also sought to lower the eligible age of electoral candidates to 18 and to enable automatic registration of voters by the Election Commission.
Today is the second time in the country’s history that a sitting government without a supermajority has succeeded in amending the federal constitution.
The first time the constitution was amended when the government did not have a two-thirds majority in the lower house was on March 3, 1971, after Parliament reconvened following the 1969 elections and racial riots.
Following the riots, Malaysia entered a phase of emergency rule, during which Parliament was suspended for 21 months and the country was run by the National Operations Council.
Besides the clashes, 1969 is significant for another reason: it was the first time the Alliance, comprising Merdeka parties Umno, MCA and MIC, lost its two-thirds control of the Dewan Rakyat.
It also marked the first parliamentary polls that included Sabah and Sarawak after the formation of Malaysia in 1963. The Alliance, along with the Sarawak Chinese Party and Parti Bumiputera Sarawak, won just 74 of the 144 federal seats.
As a result of the riots, the government felt the need to amend the constitution, to ensure no recurrence of such violence.
Known as the ‘Sensitive Matters Amendment’, Parliament amended Article 10 – related to freedom of speech, assembly and association – which comes under fundamental liberties.
With only 74 MPs on its side, the Alliance needed the aid of other parties – PAS, DAP, Gerakan, PPP, SUPP, SNAP, USNO, Pesaka and the Sabah Chinese Association – to vote for its bill. In the end, 126 of the 144 lawmakers voted through the ‘Sensitive Matters Amendment’.