GEORGE TOWN: Having voted for the first time in last year’s general election has made Undi18 voters “wiser” after the experience. So, young voters like Muhammad Faiz Abdul Rahman (pic), 21, are all revved up once more to vote in the state election here.
“With information easily available everywhere, it is not difficult to learn what is going on in the country,” said Muhammad Faiz, who is pursuing a degree in special education.
He is clear about the issues faced by the people.
“I live in Jelutong and ride a motorcycle so the problem I have noticed is the roads here, which are uneven and have potholes.
“I would like my area representative to address this and look into road safety,” he added.
Being part of the electorate, he said, meant he had contributed in choosing the government of the day.
“And the voting procedure was made easy with volunteers helping to guide us through the process,” he said, referring to his first voting experience last year.
Yap Ern See, 20, described her first voting experience in the general election in November last year as a “life changing” chapter.
“It felt great to be able to make a difference.
“While my parents did not give me much information about who to vote for or which party to support, they explained the steps and procedures involved when voting as they did not want me to waste my vote,” said Yap, who will soon start her law studies.
Yap said she had also been reading up on current politics and even joined a campaign to learn more about it.
“We were assigned different politicians to keep them accountable and observe how they worked. I managed to read up on the policies they are advocating for,” she said, adding that this gave her a better understanding of politics and the government.
Architects of Diversity co-founder Jason Wee said that state elections would present an opportunity for youths to vote on more local topics.
“We are talking about issues such as local government and roads. It is a chance for young people to vote according to issues that directly affect their day-to-day lives,” he said.
As the state elections will take place either next month or in August, Wee said there should be more awareness on pressing local government matters so that the youths were in tune with them.
“As such, political parties need to seize the opportunity to highlight state government issues to ensure voters can vote with sufficient information,” he said.
Six states – Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Penang, Selangor and Negri Sembilan – did not dissolve their state assemblies to hold state polls along with the parliamentary polls in November last year.
Penang has announced that its state assembly will be dissolved on June 28 while the Selangor state assembly will automatically dissolve on June 26. The Kelantan state assembly will automatically dissolve on June 28, Terengganu (July 1), Negri Sembilan (July 2) and Kedah (July 4).
