Mahathir, 93, aims to lower Malaysia voting age to empower youth

KUALA LUMPUR (July 23): 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, 25, told Bloomberg in an interview in Kuala Lumpur. The two-month-old cabinet plans to ask the Attorney-General’s office to look into what laws need to be amended, he said.

Lowering the voting age to 18 from 21 would add an additional 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 around 40% of the Malaysian electorate, twice the number of voters over 60, according to Election Commission data.

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