Undi 18: Understanding the political participation of first-time Malay voters through social media

With the voting age for Malaysians lowered from 21 to 18 effective December 2021, first-time voters' political participation among Malaysia's youth will be in the spotlight. This indicates that an additional 5.8 million voters aged between 18 and 21 are anticipated in Malaysia's 2022 election. Appealing to young voters, who are digital natives, is a crucial factor in the 15th General Election campaign. As a highly personalized and individualized space, this study explores how these first-time voters use social media for political participation, interacting with politicians and expressing their political views and thoughts. Based on online interviews with 44 first-time Malay voters aged between 18 and 20 years old, this article investigates how these young, first-time voters engage in political expression and interact with politicians as well as their political participation behaviour through social media. Findings show that respondents mainly participate in low levels of online political participation. Although all participants agreed that political expression is crucial for democracy, many respondents are reluctant to share their political views online due to a lack of knowledge to discuss and debate politics. Facebook and Twitter emerged as the favorite platforms for political news due to the credibility of information, while Instagram and TikTok were the least favorite. Personalization of politics appears to work effectively for politicians who actively post on social media. Syed Saddiq, Muhyiddin Yassin and Najib Razak were the top favorite politicians among the respondents.