Most of the Malaysian youths do not have sufficient political knowledge and the readiness to vote in the upcoming elections.
Tun Tan Cheng Lock Center for Social and Policy Studies (TCLC) of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman recently conducted a study on the perceptions of Malaysian youths towards lowering of the voting age. This study was administered online over a two-week period to
respondents aged between 16 to 30 of various ethnicities.
A total of 265 respondents participated which consists of Malays (43%), Chinese (53.2%), Indians (1.9%) and Bumiputra from Sabah and Sarawak (1.9%). In terms of gender, 59% of the respondents are female while 41% are male. In terms of age, 34.1% are from 16 to 20
years old, 53.8% from 21 to 25 years old and 12.1% 26 to 30 years old.
The amendment of Article 119(1) of the Federal Constitution to reduce the minimum voting age in Malaysia from 21 to 18 years old aims to drive civic values of democratic participation among youth. However, the study found that only 25% of them are interested in Malaysian
politics and 14% of those who responded has voting experience (see Figure 1 and 2).
It is crucial to understand that Malaysian youths are not independent in making political decisions. As a result, the study also found that Malaysian youth’s political knowledge usually comes from family and friends which has significant influence on their voting decision (see Figure 3 and 4).
Despite the lowering of voting age, this study found significant impacts on the upcoming election based on the following dimensions:
Awareness of the amendment of Article 119, Article 47 and Eighth Schedule (Section 5) of the Federal Constitution
Two additional amendments accompanied the lowering of the voting age including automatic registration of voters and a corresponding reduction in the age limit for electoral candidates. Only 62% of the respondents aware of the automatic voter registration that has come into
effect since 2021.
In this respect, majority of the respondents agreed with the lowering of voting age to 18 years old and is it important to drive political landscape in Malaysia to be more youth oriented while only 28% of them disagreed with the amendment (see Figure 5).
43.5% of the respondents surveyed agreed with the lowering of voting age can drive significant outcome in Malaysian political landscape, 22% of them disagree with the lowering of the age of election candidate.
Political Knowledge
It is alarming to note that only 40% of the respondents indicated that they have sufficient political knowledge about voting system and 42% of them understand political parties in Malaysia (see Figure 8 and 9). Consequently, 63% of the respondents suggested that education institutions should educate them on political knowledge to prepare them for voting (see Figure 10).
Readiness to vote
77% of the respondents indicated that they are ready to vote in the coming election (see figure 11) as they believe it is important for them to involve in Malaysian politics and to contribute youth empowerment (see figure 12) while 36.7% of them do not trust the political
system in Malaysia (see figure 13).
One of the notable impacts of lowering voting age will be the tremendous increase in the size of the voter base due to the automatic voter registration. Hence, the inundation of new voters will certainly intensify political competition in the upcoming election. Given the results of the study, the loci of political contestations are likely to be the education system and youth political knowledge which resulted that they are lack of political knowledge even though majority of them are ready to vote. While voting is not mandatory in Malaysia, the automatic
registration of voters may not necessarily escalate the voter turnout in elections as well.
About studies by TCLC
This study is among TCLC’s initiatives to understand various social phenomena occurring in Malaysia.
