The Malaysian Insight

POLICE have called up seven participants of the Undi18 protest outside Parliament last Saturday, said Muda secretary Amir Abdul Hadi.

The seven will have their statements recorded at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters tomorrow afternoon. They will be accompanied by lawyer and Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo.

The seven who will meet police tomorrow are Amir, DAP youth chief Howard Lee, PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang or better known as Tian Chua, Amanah youth chief Shazni Munir, DAP’s Ketari assemblyman Young Syefura Othman, Saharan Raj from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), and Arveent Srirangan Kathirtchelvan, the founder of civil society group #Liberasi.

Amir said police have a list of 11 people who were involved in the protest. The others will be called later.

About 300 youth gathered outside Parliament and held a symbolic 18 minutes of silence to protest the delay in lowering the voting age to 18  and automatically registering voters to September 1 next year. The two measures are popularly known by the Malay phrase Undi18 (Vote 18). 

Some opposition politicians were also present at the protest, including former education minister Maszlee Malik and PKR lawmaker Maria Chin Abdullah. along with other civil society groups such as Bersih 2.0 and Demokrat Nasional.

While the bill to amend the constitution to lower the voting age had been passed by both houses of Parliament, other election-related laws have not been amended to enable automatic voter registration of 18 year-olds, as Parliament has been suspended due to the state of emergency announced to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. – March 29, 2021.