KUALA LUMPUR: It is time the government amend the Federal Constitution to make voting compulsory for all Malaysians, Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan (BN-Pontian) said.
He said 22 nations have already made voting compulsory and this includes neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Singapore.
Ahmad also suggested for the government to impose fines on Malaysians who refused to vote.
"Let's fine them, maybe RM100 or RM200 or maybe they won't be allowed to renew their licenses.
"We only need to go voting once every five years. We can't even do this? It's not like we have to do this once a month.
"During the 14th General Election (GE14), 82.32 per cent Malaysians voted. Out of 14.9 million (registered) voters, only 12.2 million went out to vote.
"Were the remaining 2.7 million (voters) sleeping? It's only once every five years and yet they won't go out to vote," he said in the Dewan Rakyat today when debating the 12th Malaysia Plan.
After GE14, several by-elections saw low voter turnouts such as the Balakong by-election which saw a 43 per cent turnout, Seri Setia (44 per cent), Sungai Kandis (49.4 per cent), and Port Dickson (58.2 per cent).
In July 2019, former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad told the Lower House that the government at the time had no plans to make voting compulsory during general elections.
He said according to studies conducted, countries that have made it compulsory to vote did not get a 100 per cent voter turnout.
At the time, he said Singapore only achieved 93.56 per cent, Australia 91.89 per cent followed by Belgium (88.3 per cent), and Austria (80 per cent).
Instead, Dr Mahathir said the government would increase awareness of voters to encourage them to go out and cast their votes.