The British government said Thursday that it would allow young people aged 16 to vote in the general elections, a historic change giving the United Kingdom one of the lowest voting ages in the world.
The Labor Party in power undertook to reduce the age of 18 before the victory of power last year. It is one of several changes planned in the democratic system.
Some maintain that British democracy is “in crisis”, in particular due to low participation.
The change in voting age is however controversial, the criticisms previously making it selfish, because the newly buried adolescents are considered to be more likely to support center-left work.
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“I think it is really important that young people aged 16 and 17 have the vote, because they are old enough to go to work, they are old enough to pay taxes, so (they) pay,” said Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“And I think if you pay, you should have the opportunity to say what you want to spend, in which direction the government should go,” said Starmer.
The government will have to provide legislation before Parliament, where it has a comfortable majority, to make changes.
Only a small number of countries allow young people aged 16 to vote in the national elections, depending on the databases online.
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They include Austria – the first EU country to lower the age of voting to 16 years in 2007 – as well as Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba.
The Labor Ministers insist that the change is intended to “modernize our democracy”, while aligning the general elections on the existing voting age for elections for deconant regional parliaments in Scotland and Wales.
Other changes planned include the introduction of automated voters’ registration – which is already used in Australia and Canada – and make bank cards issued in the United Kingdom a form of identity accepted in polling stations.
It follows the changes to the electoral law introduced by the previous conservative government which forced voters to show a photo identity document. The electoral commission concluded that the rule led to around 750,000 people who did not vote in the election last year.
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Harry Quilter-Pinner, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy Research Institute for the Institute for Public Research, has described the changes of “the greatest reform of our electoral system since 1969”, when the voting age was reduced to 18 years.
He noted that the reduction in the age of the vote and the introduction of automated registration could add 9.5 million more people to the electoral lists. “Our democracy is in crisis, and we risk reaching a tilting point where politics loses its legitimacy,” he added, supporting changes.
The main conservative opposition, however, accused the work of inconsistency, children aged 16 and 17 will still not be able to be candidates in the elections, buy lottery or alcohol tickets or get married.
“This is a cheeky attempt by the Labor Party whose unpopularity frightens them to make major constitutional changes without consultation,” said party communities spokesman Paul Holmes.
