THE Penang government, through the Penang Youth Development Corporation (PYDC), has stepped up its effort to seek the youths’ views on lowering the age for citizens from 21 to 18 as candidates of the State Legislative Assembly.
State Youth and Sports Committee chairman Soon Lip Chee said the agency was doing its part by conducting a survey.
“There’s no time limit for the survey or engagement with the youths taking place. It will be carried on until the State Legislative Assembly is allowed to reconvene. If everything proceeds smoothly, by then we hope to gather the feedback to be presented in the state exco meeting and during the assembly session.
“As of now, only Perak, Perlis, Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan and Terengganu had successfully lowered the age for citizens from 21 to 18 as candidates of their State Legislative Assemblies.
“I hope everyone will do their part by providing their opinions for the survey, ” he told a press conference after launching the ‘Undi18’ campaign.
On July 16, 2019, Parliament had lowered the voting age to 18 through a constitutional amendment and gazetted it on July 25 the same year.
Soon expressed hopes that the Federal Government would abide by the Parliament’s decision to implement the 18-year-old voting mechanism by the 15th General Election.
PYDC general manager Dr Gwee Sai Ling said 1,500 feedback have been received to date.
“About 75.5% of them agreed with the state’s effort to reduce the age of candidates for the State Legislative Assembly from 21 to 18.
“The survey form is available on PYDC’s Facebook page browse through the link at (https://forms.gle/VwjquEQR9ZaWJUJy9) for more details,” she said.
Also present were PYDC deputy general manager Ng Hooi Ting, PYDC director Lee Wei Seang and Pengkalan Kota assemblyman Daniel Gooi.
Story by Edmund Lee
Pix by Law Suun Ting