I was 22 when I first heard about a mysterious virus in Wuhan which was making people very sick and spreading quickly.
I didn’t give it much thought – sure it’ll never make it to Northern Ireland!
And yet here I am, about to turn 25, and wondering how I’ve ended up spending the majority of my term as national student president dealing with the impact of Covid. Did any of us really imagine it would go on this long?
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As I enter my last six months in office I can confidently say that I have thrown everything I have at trying to make sure students were represented and supported during this time. And this summer I’ll be handing the baton over to a new student president who will continue the fight.
Of course, there’s another (almost as exciting) election taking place this year.
On May 5, Northern Ireland will vote for a new NI Assembly for the first time since the Assembly collapsed in 2017.
In that time we’ve not only handled a pandemic, but we faced over two years without a government in place. My feeling is that the public have a lot to say about what’s happened, and they’ll be using their voice at the ballot box. However, there are many people who will be affected by this election that won’t get a chance to speak.
I represent thousands of students who are under the age of 18. I am baffled, sometimes on a daily basis, that these intelligent, articulate young people are unable to cast their vote, when the decisions being made by politicians day to day are likely to affect them for longer than any other group in society.
Last week my team and I spent hours poring over proposals from the Department for the Economy to slash apprenticeship places in half, cut Educational Maintenance Allowance, reduce student places and raise tuition fees.
These cuts would devastate the education sector and leave thousands more young people with no option but to leave Northern Ireland to get an education.
The depth of the cuts are truly shocking, but the fact that young people have been targeted has not surprised me.
It’s easy to focus your cuts on the places where it won’t harm your polling numbers.
The fact is, 16 and 17 year olds already have a lot of responsibility in society.
They are able to leave school, work full-time, pay tax, consent to medical treatment, change their name by deed poll, apply for a passport and consent to sex.
But they aren’t allowed to vote for the leaders of their country.
Surely when a group is able to play such an active role in our society, it would make sense to give them a say in how that society operates?
Other countries think so.
The voting age is 16 in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Malta and Nicaragua. In Scotland and Wales, 16 and 17 year olds are able to vote in their local parliamentary and council elections. And the Republic of Ireland is exploring the possibility of lowering the voting age to 16 for local and European elections.
A common argument used as to why the voting age shouldn’t be lowered is that turnout is typically lower among younger age brackets.
But research from countries which have changed the voting age to 16 is likely to surprise sceptics, and delight fans of youth participation.
The younger the first time voter, the higher the turnout, some studies suggest, which can lead to greater civic participation overall.
In Austria, where the voting age is 16, voting rates among 16 and 17 year olds were found to be higher and more comparable with the general population than voting rates in 18 to 20 year olds.
Roughly 75% of 16 and 17 year olds turned out to vote in the Scottish Independence Referendum, a figure which is the stuff of dreams for Electoral Commissions everywhere, and not only that but they stayed interested in politics for longer afterwards. They were more likely to sign petitions, take part in demonstrations and read and learn about politics.
It doesn’t take much more than common sense to work out why this may be.
At 18 young people are often leaving home for the first time, saying goodbye to a permanent address for a few years and dealing with a whole host of new life experiences.
Politics isn’t usually at the top of people’s minds when they are going through so many changes, and to add to that you couldn’t even register to vote online until a couple of years ago.
Introducing people to the democratic system while they are still living in their family home, and highly likely to still be in full-time education, gives them the opportunity to learn about elections, and get themselves on the register while they are still in a stable environment.
The truth is, we need young people to vote, for the good of us all.
Recently the first ever meeting of the Northern Ireland Youth Assembly was held. Ninety 13 to 18 year olds came together to discuss what they believed were the biggest issues Northern Ireland was facing, which would inform their plan of work.
As their top four issues they chose education, environment, health, and rights and equality.
The words ‘unionist’, ‘nationalist’ and ‘sectarianism’ were not used once in the debate.
Imagine the Northern Ireland we could have if these young people had more of a say?
Electoral policy is not devolved and remains the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Office.
In order to lower the voting age the NI Executive needs to make a formal request for these powers to be devolved.
Just over ten years ago the NI Assembly passed a motion supporting lowering the voting age to 16 but no moves were made to implement this decision.
Given that since then the voting age has been lowered in half of the countries of the United Kingdom, the time is right for the NI Assembly to renew its commitment.
I believe that we can make the NI Assembly election in 2022 the last one that excludes 16 and 17 year olds.
Are you with me?
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