Labour leader Joseph Muscat’s proposal to allow youths between 16 and 18 to vote in local council elections is definitely a step in the right direction.
It is a step in the right direction for more than one reason. Firstly his proposal effectively underlines Labour’s belief that youths deserve to be empowered. Secondly, by expressing himself on this issue, Dr Muscat joined a debate which has been going on in the continent in the last years, on the merits and demerits of making youths of 16 and 17 years of age participate directly in the local democratic process.
Back in 2002, John Denham, the UK Home Office Minister responsible for young people, had already said in the British Parliament that any recommendation to lower the voting age from 18 would be considered. A few years ago, the Irish Labour Party had included in the electoral manifesto the pledge that, if elected to government, it would allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in the local and Euro parliamentary elections.
Truly, I believe that the Maltese political scene has long been yearning for people like the Labour leader who has the guts to put forward propositions which are courageous, daring and at the same time much needed to turn our country into a truly contemporary, European state.
I myself had started my participation in the political field by becoming a member of the culture sub-committee, headed by Anthony Seychell, a well-respected gentleman who puts more into the world than he takes out, in my native Zejtun local council at the age of 17. I am sure that had I been granted the opportunity to contest the local council elections, I would have definitely done that. Looking back, it would have contributed in no uncertain means to my educational and character formation.
The period between 16 and 18 years is an exciting period. At that age, youths are asked to take some important decisions, particularly related to their academic or vocational formation. They start to forge important relationships, they start to love and yearn for love, they start to live life as yet untouched by tragedy.
And if we believe in the good that derives from politics, if we strongly believe that politics is present history, how can we not allow these fully fledged youths the right to participate actively in the democratic process, even if only at the local level.
Indeed, this is also an issue of empowerment, of giving youths the power to forge their own future at the local level, of believing in them and making them full members in one of the most fundamental tenets of our country – the power vested in people to choose, through the one person one vote principle, the people who govern them at the various levels.
I am sure that the youth organisations themselves, irrespective of their political credo, will approve this proposal and urge the government to implement it in the forthcoming legislative changes which will be made to the Local Councils Act.
It’s time they learn how to fly. High.
Exciting period for youths
All in all, it’s an exciting period for youths within the Labour Party. In the last administrative and executive posts, various young people managed to get elected, with the youngest one, Nikita Zammit Alamango, making it to the executive committee at the age of 19.
The Labour Youth Forum is moving forward from strength to strength. After being ably restructured by Aaron Farrugia, another young gun who made it to the post of Educational Secretary, the forum is a pro-active organisation which is eager to act and rise above partisan politics.
An exciting future lies ahead!
Dr Owen Bonnici is the Opposition Spokesman on Youth and Culture
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