The implementation of Undi18 and the automatic voter registration saw 173,177 new voters at last Saturday’s Johor elections from the 18-20-year-old age group.

At the Umno general assembly at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur, Wan Muhammad Zuhir Ghazali claimed that the education minister (Radzi Jidin) and youth and sports minister (Ahmad Faizal Azumu), both from Bersatu, had not done enough to educate the youth about the importance of exercising their right to vote.

“Where is the youth and sports minister? Where is the education minister? They are the ones who should be formulating policies to educate the youth and students … and make them more aware about Undi18,” he said.

“If you can’t do the job or don’t have any ideas, just resign.

“Many of the youth did not even bother to vote during the Johor elections. They either did not know they could vote, did not know where to vote, or did not know why they had to vote.”

While 1,426,573 people, or 54.92% of registered voters, cast their ballots at the Johor elections, it is uncertain as to how many of that number were from the 18-20-year-old age group.

In a statement yesterday, electoral advocacy group Undi Johor said more advocacy work should have been done to raise awareness among new voters, especially those who just turned 18, ahead of the Johor polls.