KUCHING, Sept 7: The federal government has no plans to appeal against High Court’s ruling on Undi18 implementation – the initiative to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 this year.
According to MalayMail Online, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told reporters in Putrajaya today that the Attorney-General’s Chambers would not counter the Court’s decision.
“Because of the court ruling. A ruling is a law that must be accepted and observed, so I have asked the Election Commission (EC) to implement whatever it can in its powers based on the ruling made by the Judge.
“But the question on whether or not we would appeal, to date, there’s no plan to appeal against the ruling. That means the Kuching High Court’s ruling stays as a law that must be implemented,” he said.
On Sept 3, Kuching High Court’s judicial commissioner Alexander Siew How Wai had ruled that the federal government and EC’s action to delay Undi18 amendments as “irrational, illegal, disproportionate and amounts to voter suppression”.
The Court thus ordered the federal government and EC to expedite implementation of Undi18 latest by Dec 31 this year, giving victory to five Sarawakian students who filed the judicial review against the federal government.
Wan Junaidi took the opportunity to explain that some of the legal and technical issues that had prompted the EC to delay the implementation of Undi18 to September 2022 from its promised date in July 2021. Among them were discrepancies in addresses that could make automatic voter registration difficult. – DayakDaily
