The Sen­ate has passed a bill, rais­ing the age of mar­riage in this coun­try to 18.

The bill, which At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al­Rawi ini­tial­ly said need­ed a spe­cial ma­jor­i­ty,&nb­sp;was passed af­ter 10 pm Tues­day, with a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty af­ter sev­er­al amend­ments were made.

All UNC mem­bers in the Sen­ate ab­stained.

The leg­is­la­tion, known as the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Mar­riage) Bill was passed by a mar­gin of 23 for, none against, five ab­sten­tions.

The leg­is­la­tion now goes to the Low­er House to be de­bat­ed by Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment.