KUCHING: Whichever party gets the majority support of rural voters will be the final winner, predicts Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei.
He said this while commenting on the recent amendments to the Federal Constitution authorising automatic registration of voters and the lowering of the minimum voting age from 21 to 18.
Wong expects that with these two amendments, the number of eligible voters will increase tremendously and there will be a lot of first-time voters, the majority of whom are from the rural areas.
He believed that most unregistered voters are rural ones as urban dwellers have better access to the Election Commission in addition to greater awareness of getting registered.
“Political parties must try their very best to gain the support of the rural voters,” Wong said during a press conference held yesterday at King Wei & Clement Advocates and Solicitors.
He believed that citizens should be able to exercise their right to vote without hindrances, particularly for many rural Sarawakians who are too far away from government offices.
“The constitutional amendments will change the whole political landscape in the next state election,” he said.
Wong believed that the results of the previous state election would no longer be a yard stick for the voting attitude in the next election as the trend is now very uncertain to everyone.
“All the political parties have no experience in approaching the 18 to 20-year-old voters,” he said.
