KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — Pontian MP Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan today proposed amending the Federal Constitution to make voting in elections mandatory.

The Umno lawmaker also suggested punishing those who refused to vote with a fine as well as a ban on renewing their driving licences.

"Why do I say that we need to amend the Federal Constitution and make it mandatory to have Malaysians vote?

"This voting is every five years and they don't go out to vote. What is this? It's not once a month,” he said while debating the 12th Malaysia Plan in the Dewan Rakyat.

He said statistics put the voter turnout at 82.32 per cent for the last general election in 2018 and questioned why the remainder who were eligible didn’t do so.

"Of the 14.9 million voters, only 12.2 million went out. Were the other 2.7 million sleeping? They didn't go out to vote even though it's five years once.

"Those who did not go out, we impose a fine. For example, RM100, for example RM200, for example, disabling driving licence renewal,” he said.

He added that mandatory voting was the law in 22 countries, including neighbouring Singapore.

Voting is not compulsory in Malaysia.