Youth Council calls for serious study into effects of lower voting age

The National Youth Council (Kunsill Nazzjonali Żgħażagħ) believes that, at this stage, it would be healthy to see how lowering the voting age at local council elections works out in practice.

The issue, however, does not end when young people start voting, but actually starts at that point, the council said. Serious analysis of turnout and other variables should then be conducted to investigate the effect of this change. The council called on political parties to be careful and sensitive when designing electoral campaigns since young people should not be perceived as an easy element of the electoral formula.

The council said it is carrying out a study of the participation of people in society aged 16 to 18. It strongly believes that it is important to stress at this point that the issue is not only about lowering the voting age but also about enhancing the participation of young people in society. The European Youth Forum, of which KNŻ is a full member, has been in favour of lowering the voting age since 2006.

The debate was instigated by Alternattiva Demokratika earlier this year followed by the Nationalist Party Youth Movement public relations officer and former KNŻ policy officer Frank Psaila last March.

However, it has been greatly boosted by a proposal made by MLP leader Joseph Muscat in his The Times column at the beginning of this week.