Millennials to get more power after backing 93-year-old Mahathir Mohamad
A plan to lower the voting age will put more electoral power in the hands of the youth, considered to have been the kingmakers in this year’s election shock
Kuala Lumpur — Malaysia’s youth are likely to get more power after backing 93-year-old Mahathir Mohamad to topple a regime that ruled the Southeast Asian nation for six decades. Malaysia is "very serious" about reducing the voting age to 18 before the next elections due by 2023, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who is 25 years old, told Bloomberg in an interview in Kuala Lumpur. The cabinet, which has been in place for two months, would ask the attorney-general’s office to look into what laws needed to be amended, he said. Lowering the voting age to 18 from 21 would add 3.7-million voters, Saddiq said, increasing the number of registered voters by about 25% from the election in May. Voters aged 21-39 make up about 40% of the Malaysian electorate, twice the number of voters over 60, according to Election Commission data. "That means the youth voter block becomes bigger and stronger, and therefore, they cannot be sidelined in the Malaysian political scene anymo...
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