KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — The High Court here has fixed June 17 for a decision on the legal action by 18 Malaysian youths to challenge the government’s action in delaying the implementation of Undi18, a move to lower the voting age to 18 and to enable automatic voter registration (AVR).

The youths had on behalf of the Undi18 movement filed leave for a judicial review application and named Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the government and the Election Commission (EC) as respondents.

Judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid set the date after hearing submissions from the 18 youths’ counsel Datuk S. Ambiga and Datuk Gurdial Singh Nijar and senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, who acted for the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) on behalf of all the respondents.

Earlier, Shamsul, when objecting to the 18 youths’ application for leave, submitted that the necessary law and regulations need to be amended before AVR could be enforced.

“This is because, with the constitutional amendment, there is no longer any application as AVR kicks in.

“It is the argument of the applicants that the enforcement and implementation of Section 3(a) and Section 3(b) of the Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019 can be done separately. Therefore, the registration of the person qualified can be done manually and AVR can be done at a later date,” he said.

Section 3(a) deals with lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 while Section 3(b) is to allow for automatic voter registration to replace the current system where Malaysians have to apply to be registered as voters.

Both these two constitutional amendments have yet to come into force.

However, Shamsul argued that the enforcement and implementation of the constitutional amendments could not be done in isolation and have to be done together as the enforcement and application of AVR is the reverse effect of application for registration by the qualified person.

“We humbly submitted that the applicants have no arguable case. The applicants’ application herein hinges on the enforcement and implementation of the constitutional amendments which can only be done with the necessary amendments to the corresponding statutory provisions.

“Based on the above-mentioned reason, I respectfully pray that the application for leave to make judicial review application herein be dismissed,” he said.

Ambiga, however, countered that there are approximately 1.2 million youths aged between 18 and 20 years by July this year who will be affected by the government’s action in delaying the implementation of the Undi 18.

The lawyer said the government’s decision to not bring into operation Section 3(a) immediately before July 2021 has adversely affected the 18 applicants because they could not register themselves in the electoral roll.

“As a result, the applicants are unable to vote in any election after July 1, 2021 and before September 2022, including the possibility of not being able to vote in the 15th General Elections,” she said.

On April 2, the youths, aged between 18 and 20, filed their legal action seeking several court orders arising from the respondents’ delay in the implementation of Undi-18.

In the application, the youths seek a declaration that the government’s action to delay the enforcement of lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 was irrational, illegal, disproportionate and a form of voter suppression.

The applicants want a declaration that those aged 18 to 20 have a legitimate expectation that they will have the right to vote on or before July 2021. — Bernama