By Emellia Tamoh
KUCHING, July 17: It will be a challenge for Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) to win the hearts and minds of young voters in the rural areas, according to PRS’s Youth Chief Datuk Snowdan Lawan.
He said he supported the recent constitutional amendment which would allow millions of youths to vote as it would empower the youth for meaningful participation in the country’s democratic process.
“Strategically, our executing arms or enablers to achieve this stretch goal is to woo them back to their origin, being rural centric,” he said in a press statement here today.
He added that the presence of the young voters should not be left out but should be acknowledged and taken onboard instead.
Youths, according to him, will be divided into those who were eager to practice their voting right and those who are ignorant of their rights.
“The burden is on us to create awareness amongst the youths and quantify their moral commitment to be responsible and quality voters,” he said.
Snowdan was commenting on the historic passing of the constitutional amendment bill lowering the voting age limit to 18 years and automatic voter registration yesterday by Parliament.
He added that it is the Election Commission (EC)’s responsibility to justify the accuracy of the data when it comes to automatic registration.
“Probably, the system would be migrated from our National Registration Department static data to generate (sic) the almost 7.8 million impending new voters into the electoral roll nationwide.
“The fact that the amendment of the constitutional bill was passed without objection only leaves us to execute the necessary on the ground battlefield,” he said. — DayakDaily
