KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 ― Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin has today called out the Election Commissions (EC) for its decision to delay Undi18 until September 2022, saying the latter’s reasoning for doing so was preposterous.
In a statement, Khairy said the use of Covid-19 and the movement control orders (MCO) as an excuse to postpone Undi18 was not good enough, as it has been more than a year since Covid-19 first broke in the country.
“Last year, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Parliament and Law) said that the implementation of Undi18 and automatic voter registrations was on track for July 2021.
“Not even five months later, the EC announces that it has postponed Undi18 until September 2022, which is more than a year later,” said Khairy.
Khairy added that the EC’s statement on the workflow for engaging with political parties and NGOs also gave rise to question marks.
“The EC should provide further clarification on the programme workflow as this is no longer a consequential matter, Undi18 has already been passed at the highest level, Parliament.
“The workflow processes should operate round the clock without affecting the time period that was previously announced,” he said.
Khairy added that the EC’s announcement contradicted a statement made by the chairman on June 7, 2020, saying the preparation for the implementation for Undi18 to the existing election laws, along with the systems and infrastructure for it would be completed by July 2021.
“It should be noted that this past year's EC statement is only a repeat to the statement issued by the former Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, the late Datuk VK Liew in October 2019 which set the same target as July 2021 as the beginning of the implementation of Undi18 and automatic voter registration,” he said.
Khairy also tweeted that he and Kepala Batas MP Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican would bring the matter up to Cabinet at their next meeting to urge the EC to implement Undi18 as soon as possible.
