In a press conference, he said Putrajaya would comply with the order made by the Kuching High Court, adding that the government has not decided whether to file an appeal.

“It has not been decided yet whether we want to appeal. I will discuss this with the attorney-general and the Cabinet.

“But the EC has been instructed to prepare to implement this (by Dec 31),” he said.

On Friday, the High Court in Kuching ordered the government to implement Undi18 amendments by Dec 31, after allowing a legal challenge filed by five Sarawakian youths against the previous government’s decision – led by Muhyiddin Yassin – not to implement the Undi18 amendments by July.

Judicial commissioner Alexander Siew also granted an order to quash the federal government’s decision that it can only implement the Undi18 amendments by September 2022.

“We have to follow it as it’s a court order. When the court decides, we have to accept it and carry it out,” said Wan Junaidi today.

He added that there were a total of 5.6 million unregistered voters in Malaysia, with 1.19 million of them aged between 18 and 20 and 4.41 million aged 21 and above.

The Undi18 bill, officially known as Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019, was passed by the Dewan Negara in July 2019 and gazetted two months later. The amendment lowers the voting age from 21 to 18.

Previously, the EC had said the implementation of the 18-year-old voting age and automatic voter registration would be implemented from July this year but the deadline was pushed to next September due to Covid-19 and the movement control orders.

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