A right to vote at 16

A new page in the history of local elections will be written on 20 November when the right to vote for youths age 16 will be put through parliament said the Parliamentary Secretary for Culture and Local Government José Herrera. The ground breaking decision will materialise after a wide consultation process leading to further democratisation of the electoral process. As 16 and 17 year olds constitute 4.5% of the electorate, the right to vote at 16 makes youths the protagonists of upcoming elections and rippling out to the candidates, who will have to address their new constituents.

Launching the campaign by posting the first comment on the campaign's Face Book account, Herrera held that politics has lost its glamour as it became too confrontational.  Empowering youths with the right to vote from a young age leads to politics becoming a ground to battle ideas and not an arena for personal attacks as at 16 youth are not yet tainted with the politics of the past and quoted President emeritus Guido de Marco in saying that one should criticise the song not the singer.

Herrera reiterated that this is the government's first step into promoting the youth's mature decision making ability and pledged that other schemes and legal amendments will follow.

Parliamentary Secretary for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sports Stefan Buontempo held that it is a privilege for him to launch the Vote 16 campaign which looks at youths as protagonists in the governance of the country. The right to vote brings with it a number of responsibilities as the youth now have to follow attentively the politics that surround them in order to reach conscious decisions before casting their vote. Buontempo concluded that this is the first step towards achieving the right of voting for the country's administration which is the next obvious choice.

The law granting 16 year olds the right to vote will be voted on in Parliament on the 20th anniversary from the introduction of local councils in Malta on 20 November, the Chairman of the Monitoring Committee, Michael Cohen said. The President of Malta George Abela and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat together with Opposition leader Simon Busuttil will be the first to be consulted on the granting a right to vote to 16 year old youths as the committee reaches out to society for its views on granting youths the right to vote at 16 years.

The launch of the Vote 16 campaign brings with it a new era for Maltese youths as around 5000 youths aged 16 years and the same number aged 17 years will be granted the right to vote at local council level as of the next elections.  Andrew Azzopardi, the project manager of the Vote 16 campaign explained that one of the aims of this measure is for the youths to feel more included in the local political scene and decision making processes. Another aspect is that youths will no longer stay on the sidewalk regarding politics as a dirty game but will themselves contribute to a newer, cleaner political process.

Robert Cutajar Spokesperson for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport and Miriam Theuma member of the monitoring board were also present for the launch of the Vote 16 campaign.