BACK AND FORTH: 58 per cent of registered voters now are aged 40 and below
The 58 per cent npw represents a total of 12.1 million voters, while back in GE14 the same number only represented 41 per cent of the total electorate.(Photo Source: Bernama)
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If you fail to do, you're basically signing up your deathbed.
Based on the latest statistics released by Election Commission (EC) and figures obtained from the Statistics Department Malaysia, 58 per cent of registered voters including new ones under the Automatic Voters Registration when Undi18 was implemented are made of this group.
Vital to keep in mind that the 58 per cent shown here represents a total of 12.1 million voters.
In the 14th General Election (GE14), the same number only represented 41 per cent of the total electorate. Just imagine the sudden change and stark difference.
All this thanks to the implementation of Undi18, making youths now the kingmaker of the Malaysia's political arena and the future.
According to the EC, any elections after Jan 16 this year, Malaysian citizen aged 18 and above can simply walk-in at their Parliament's polling centre to cast a vote in accordance to their registered address on their identity card.
They can vote without registering at the EC as how it was previously practiced, which was just too complicated. Those who had yet to register with the EC needed to register themselves first to qualify for voting.
Even after registration, their names were not automatically recognised as voters but instead had to wait for up to six months until the latest voters list was published.
Once it is published, it will be exhibited in public spaces for the objection and observation process.
Once the whole process was done - meaning nobody objected to any of the names in the list - will your registered name be included as official registered electorate.
These processes are irrelevant now in this new era. Those who turned 18-years old and those who have yet to vote before this will be automatically accepted as voters of the constituency according their identity card's address.
More than 5.8 million new voters has emerged from this move, with already 15.3 million people on the list.
This means the new number of the entire Malaysian electoral roll is 21.1 million people.
The EC said from the total amount, 1.2 million were those aged 18 to 21, while the balance were of those 21 years and above that had never registered with the EC.
This makes things even more complicated for political parties as they would need to convince the young majority voters that they deserve a place in power.
To understand their aspirations and needs is a way to attract their attention and support.
It would be even better if they could reassure the youths that there will be employment opportunities, education funds and a chance to own affordable homes if given the mandate to form a government.
Surely the political party or coalition that is able to realise this will have a bright future ahead.
BACK AND FORTH column is written by Rozaid Rahman every Monday. Rozaid is the Group Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Executive of Sinar Karangkraf.
