PILDAT wants abysmal youth voter turnout to be changed

PILDAT wants abysmal youth voter turnout to be changed

PILDAT wants abysmal youth voter turnout to be changed

According to PILDAT, youth voter turnout in the past eight elections remained just 31%. Image: File

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ISLAMABAD: Even though youth make the largest chunk of Pakistan’s population and registered voters in 18 to 29 years legion form the largest of all age cohorts, youth voter turnout remains abysmally low in Pakistan, said the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) in a statement on Tuesday.

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Citing estimated data on youth voter turnout collected by Gallup Pakistan over the past eight general elections since 1988, PILDAT said that youth voter turnout in the past eight elections remained just 31% which was 13 percentage points lower than the average overall voter turnout in these elections.

Youth voter turnout was even lower than women voter turnout during the past two elections for which women voter turnout figures are available. Average youth voter turnout estimates were a mere 31.5% compared to 40% for women voter turnout and 53% for average national voter turnout during the last two elections in 2013 and 2018, it added.

In India, youth participation in the 2019 general election exceeded the all India turnout by approximately 2%, said PILDAT.

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The issue of low level of youth voter turnout in Pakistan was further compounded by extremely scant youth participation in the political process as a whole with minimal political association and participation in elections as candidates at various levels (local, provincial and national).

PILDAT said it believed that to strengthen Pakistan’s electoral process and to make it more inclusive, every state and political entity needed to play an effective role to increase youth participation in elections.

PILDAT also launched the registration process for young Pakistanis to register to join the 17th Youth Parliament Pakistan through which, 272 young Pakistanis would be selected from an equal number of National Assembly constituencies across Pakistan. In addition, youth representation is invited from young Pakistanis living in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit-Baltistan and from young Pakistanis residing overseas.

Drawing the attention of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to the critical issue of low voter turnout in the youth of Pakistan, PILDAT also urged the ECP to consider:

Carrying out an estimation of a total number of registered voters in the age group of 18 to 29 in the electoral rolls with a breakdown for gender, provinces, and even constituencies need to be undertaken. This data also needed to be made public periodically, at least, every year, it continued.

Undertaking research focusing on youth participation in the electoral process to understand the reasons behind extra-ordinarily low youth voter turnout in Pakistan, said PILDAT.

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Designing and executing special campaigns aimed at educating youth about the importance of participation as a voter, conducting multiple exit polls to ascertain the level of Youth voter turnout in future general elections, amending the ECP Strategic Plan 2018-2023 to include strategic actions aimed at addressing the low Youth voter turnout and creating a dedicated wing or at least designating a focal person within the ECP to focus continuous attention on Youth participation in the electoral process were key, it added.

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