Sadly, not many people are willing to exercise that right, especially undergraduates.
The New Straits Times reported that only less than 10% undergraduates have registered as voters out of the 30,000 that were approached by the Malaysian Electoral Commission (EC).
“As the Election Commission, we have a great responsibility in making ensuring all youth, including the 2,700 that we managed to register, to come out and vote during Election Day,” EC chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah told the English daily.
This has become a growing concern for the EC since the number of future voters aged between 18 to 39 years old were among the lowest to register.
The EC has conducted a study on the alarming rate of unregistered voters in that age group and has concluded that the top three reasons are due to their lack of knowledge on how to vote, unsure of where and how to register, and no interest in politics and they don’t want any involvement in the topic.
“EC is faced with many challenges to address the issue. We are trying our best to come out with ways to get youth to be involved in the election process,” Hashim added.
The EC has also recently launched the MYSPR SEMAK application where you can check your voter registration status. The app is available on both Apple app store and Google Play store.
The app will also include information such as the voters’ ballot centre and live result updates of the election.