Maltese parliament extends voting suffrage to 16-year-olds

The government and Opposition have this evening voted unanimously in favour of the Vote 16 act to go through, with 64 votes in favour, and no MPs abstaining or voting against. The act amends the Constitution, allowing the voting age to go down to 16 from 18.

The Labour Party and Nationalist Party had previously both spoken in favour of the lowering of the voting age, with the Prime Minister being clear about the electoral mandate the government had in this regard. The age people could vote in local council elections had been lowered to 16 in 2013.

Following the vote, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat noted on Twitter that Malta was the second country in the European Union to allow voting at 16 years of age, following Austria’s introduction of a lowered voting age in 2007.

#Malta becomes second European Union member state, after #Austria, to lower voting age to 16 years in all elections. Parliament amends Constitution unanimously. We have made history, again -JM

— Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) 5 March 2018