by Theleaders-Online | July 10, 2019 4:35 am
KUALA LUMPUR: The government has withdrawn two Bills from the Dewan Rakyat today- one is the amendment to the controversial National Security Council Act (NSC) 2016 and the constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18 years of age.
Although the government has announced that it was set to improve the Bill on voting age, the withdrawal of the amendment to the NSC Act came as a surprise.
The NSC Act was enacted during the tenure of then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, which courted controversy among Pakatan Harapan leaders and civil rights movements.
The law gives the prime minister wide emergency-like powers, allowing the premier to define ‘security zones’ where authorities can arrest without a warrant, take possession of land, building or property.
The legislation also gives NSC absolute legal immunity from court proceedings.
In its election pledge, Pakatan had promised to repeal the law. Upon taking over, however, Pakatan decided to amend the law instead of abolishing it.
The amendment bill had intended to substitute the word ‘prime minister’ to ‘Yang di-Pertuan Agong, on the advice of the council’.
As for the constitutional amendment bill to lower the voting age, the government had indicated that it would incorporate some ideas given by the opposition members of the bench.
The opposition MPs has demanded for the government to mandate law that would automatically register voters once they become 18.
They also urged the government to allow election candidates age to be lowered from 21 to 18 years of age as well.
Source URL: https://theleaders-online.com/putrajaya-withdraws-nsc-amendment-and-lowering-voting-age-bills/
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