I POLL

The iPoll is a synergy between MaltaToday, the Internet and you the readers.

Every week the web sites www.maltatoday.com.mt and www.maltamag.com will feature an opinion poll on a particular issue. The results of this Internet poll will then be published in MaltaToday the following Sunday along with an opinion article.

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Today’s issue concerns the voting age.
Do you think the voting age should be lowered to 16?

Maturity and the voting age

By Niam Bezzina

In two year’s time it will once again be up to each and every citizen to use his or her vote to determine who should lead the nation for the next five years.

The question posed, whether the voting age should be reduced to 16 years of age, is a pertinent one, however, the arguments against such an idea would probably overcome those in favour of it.

Personally, I do not think it would be morally correct to allow underage people to vote for a couple of reasons. I don’t believe the individual would be mature enough to weigh up all aspects of the arguments needed to produce a fair, final decision.

Furthermore, a 16-year old would not be fully aware of what is going on in the country and probably just vote for the party, which might have mentioned one thing that caught his attention, regardless of the party’s other policies. Sadly, this is a fact that occurs very often even among us adults!

We would end up with a considerable amount of underage people voting for the party their parents would have been voting for all their lives. And in the process, recreating an ongoing cycle, which definitely would not be right. The individual should know what he is voting for and why he is voting that way.

It is obvious that I am generalising as regards underage voters. It is perfectly possible to find some youngsters who would know what is going on, therefore contributing positively by their vote.

However, allowing underage people to vote would completely eliminate the idea of a well-contested election, with a fair, just and well-weighed up vote from each and every individual.

Despite the reasons for my opposition to reducing the voting age I am not at all surprised at seeing adults who would never consider voting for another party, even if the party they have been voting for all their life proposes something they do not agree with. For certain people, voting is simply a tradition, which comes every five years and is taken completely for granted.

Being an adult does not mean that a person will automatically know what is going on around him, but the risk of having people vote, oblivious of the country’s general situation, increases if underage people are given the vote. After all, it is our country we are talking about!

Mr Bezzina is chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika Studenti