Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman
SHAH ALAM: Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has reminded all parties to concur with the Federal government’s decision to reduce the age limit of youth from 40 to 30 years.
He said this was because there were still several parties that disagreed with the decision.
“Before the amendment (was made in Parliament), I had spoken with and obtained agreements not only from the state executive councils, but also the youth wings.
“If it involves programmes at the state government-level, we understand.
For example, Selangor.
Selangor clearly agrees with us, only the state’s policy is different.
However, if they are registered with the Registrar of Youth Organisations (ROY) they will follow (the Federal-level definition),” he told reporters after appearing as a panelist on The Daily Sinar Discourse programme titled ‘Voting Age at 18: Who will benefit?’ at the Karangkraf complex here yesterday.
Other panelists in the programme were Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadli Shaari; UMNO Youth vice-president Shahril Hamdan and Universiti Sains Malaysia’s political science senior lecturer Dr Muhamad Nadzri Mohamed Noor.
Syed Saddiq was asked to comment on the stand of several parties including the Johor state government which had yet to agree with the amendment.
“I would like to emphasise once again that this Act will take effect on Dec 2021, for me, it (implementation) should begin now,” he said.
Meanwhile, Syed Saddiq said the cost to organise the 15th General Election was expected to increase to RM1 billion compared to RM500 million previously, after amendments to the Federal Constitution to lower the eligibility of voting age from 21 to 18 years were passed in the Dewan Rakyat in this sitting.
He said the increase in management costs was estimated by the Election Commission.
Syed Saddiq presented the first draft of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 for the first reading of the Dewan Rakyat on July 4 and the second and third reading were expected to be tabled in the same session which ends on July 18.
The proposed amendment to Article 119 (1) (a) of the Federal Constitution is to lower the voting age limit from 21 to 18, and it is part of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) manifesto which was agreed upon unanimously by the Cabinet in September last year. — Bernama