With Emergency gone, Bersih 2.0 wants EC to ensure Undi18 here in time for Sarawak polls

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — As the Sarawak election must be held within 60 days of the state-wide Emergency ending, electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 said efforts should now be made to ensure Sarawakians aged 18 to 20 could still vote in the important poll.

The five-year term of the Sarawak legislative assembly expired on June 6, 2021, with the Sarawak state constitution then requiring the Sarawak state election to be held within 60 days of that expiry.

But the state election was first suspended under a nationwide Emergency from January 11 to August 1, and further delayed until next year via an Emergency on Sarawak only from August 2, 2021 to February 2, 2022.

The Sarawak state election was due to take place 60 days from the revocation of the state-wide Emergency, which would have been sometime by April next year at the latest. 

With the Yang di-Pertuan Agong today assenting to the earlier lifting of the state-wide Emergency however, this would mean that the Sarawak state election must be held within 60 days from the revocation, which could include the possibility of voting being held within this year or by early January.

Istana Negara said the Agong was concerned about the risk of a new wave of Covid-19 infections should the Sarawak state election be held as he believed the pandemic was still severe in the country, but that the difficult decision to assent to the earlier lifting of Sarawak’s state-wide Emergency was made to fulfil democratic requirements and return the power to the people to deliver a new mandate for a new government.

The High Court in Kuching, Sarawak, previously ordered for the implementation of Undi18 — a constitutional amendment that enables youths aged 18 to 20 to be registered as voters — by December 31 this year, with the government agreeing to enforce it according to the timeline as ordered and not making any appeal against the court decision.

When contacted by Malay Mail for a response to the early lifting of Sarawak’s state-wide Emergency, Bersih 2.0 chairman Thomas Fann urged the Election Commission to speed up the process of enabling the registration of youths aged 18 to 20 as voters.

“The Sarawak state election is long overdue but we hope that those aged 18 to 20 would not be denied the opportunity to vote when the election is called. 

“The EC has to expedite the implementation so that these first time voters would not feel that the earlier lifting of the Emergency was done just to deny them the vote,” he said in a brief response.

On behalf of Bersih 2.0, he also urged for the EC to enable Sarawakian voters who are already in Peninsular Malaysia to cast their vote there instead of travelling back to Sarawak to physically cast their vote.

“We also call on the EC to allow Sarawakians living in the peninsula to vote without flying back to their constituencies. This can be done by categorising them as absentee voters and allowed to vote in advance at mass voting centres, at least one in each state in the peninsula.

“We also urge the MOH to work with the EC to facilitate safe voting instead of taking the draconian measures of banning all physical election related activities for Sarawak,” he added.

Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen, who chairs both Sarawak DAP and Sarawak Pakatan Harapan, suggested that the ruling coalition in Sarawak wanted to have the state election carried out before those aged 18 could vote and despite the pandemic.

“Abang Jo desperately wanted the State elections to be held before end of this year to avoid Undi18, notwithstanding that Sarawak is recording the highest Covid deaths for the past one month,” Chong wrote on Facebook, referring to Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg by the moniker Abang Jo.

“Is Undi18 more scary to the GPS than the Covid-19?” he asked, referring to Gabungan Parti Sarawak which is the coalition heading the Sarawak government.

Undi Sarawak had previously said about 125,000 to 135,000 Sarawakian youths would be affected if the Sarawak state election is held before Undi18 is implemented.

On March 25, 2021, the EC had said that its records showed that there are currently 1.2 million Malaysians aged 18 to 20.