Education Minister Chan Chun Sing has rejected the Workers’ Party’s proposal to lower the voting age.
Chan said that it was “not clear” if lowering the voting age would lead to a better government, adding that some countries have done so to for “perceived political advantage”.
“Some of [these countries] regretted doing so when the political outcomes were not as they had expected, although they would not say so publicly for political reasons..
This was in response to WP chairman Sylvia Lim’s call to lower the current voting age of 21.
Speaking in parliament, Lim said:
“When we require male Singaporeans to serve National Service at 18 years but only permit them to vote at 21, this is a form of age-based discrimination”.
She said that it would be a “big turnoff and a disservice to our young” to pigeonhole young people’s issues into simply issues such as climate change or discrimination.
