Vote16: 'You will be making history,' PM tells students

The white paper on allowing 16-year-olds to vote in the general election and the elections for the European Parliament will be presented by government by March, opening up elections to another 8,000 voters, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning. 

"By 2019, when the country next votes in the European Parliament elections, you youngsters will be making history," he told students at the Higher Secondary School in Naxxar.

Replying to questions put to him by students, Muscat said he did not feel 16-year-olds needed any special consideration when it came to information ahead of anybelection, because teenagers were nowadays as well informed about important matters as adults. 

"I hope to never see a condescending attitude towards teens participating in elections, and I firmly believe that you will be equal to everyone else."

He said that he did not feel teens would readily bow to pressure from their parents or family as to how to vote. 
"Young people today have learned to form their own opinions and reach their own conclusions," he said.

"Not to mention the fact that, in my experience, children would tend to rebel against anything their parents try to impose on them, rather than go along."

Muscat was accompanied on his visit by parliamentary secretaries Julia Farrugia and Clifton Grima.