Instead of an identity card, a bank card, or a military card will now be accepted as voter identification.
Staff reporter,Daily Dawn, Dawn TV report
London: Decision to reduce the voting age in general elections to 16
Reducing the voting age and implementing automatic voter registration could add 9.5 million more people to the voter list, says the think tank head
The British government has said that 16-year-olds will be allowed to vote in general elections, a decision that is a milestone that will make Britain one of the countries in the world with the lowest voting age.
According to the British news agency ‘Dawn’, the ruling Labour Party had promised to lower the voting age to 18 before coming to power last year, one of several proposed changes to the democratic system.
Some say Britain’s democracy is in “crisis”, particularly due to low voter turnout.
However, changing the voting age is a controversial issue, with critics already arguing that it is a self-serving move as young people who are becoming new voters tend to support the left-wing Labour Party.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “I think it is really important that 16 and 17 year olds are given the right to vote, because they are able to work, they pay taxes, so when they are contributing they should have that right too.”
The government would have to introduce legislation in parliament, where it has a majority, to make the changes.
According to online databases, there are only a few countries in the world that allow 16-year-olds to vote in national elections.
These include Austria, which in 2007 became the first EU country to raise the voting age to 16, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba.
Labour ministers insist the change is about modernising democracy and aims to bring the voting age in general elections into line with that of regional assemblies in Scotland and Wales.
The changes follow electoral laws introduced by the previous Conservative government, which made it mandatory to show a photo ID card to vote, a law that the Electoral Commission says caused around 750,000 people to miss out on voting in last year’s election.
Harry Quilter-Pinner, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, described the changes as the biggest reform to the electoral system since 1969, when the voting age was raised to 18.
He pointed out that lowering the voting age and introducing automatic voter registration could add 9.5 million more people to the voter list.
He supported the changes, saying that our democracy was in crisis and that we were at risk of reaching a critical point where politics would lose its legitimacy.
However, the main opposition Conservative Party criticised Labour, saying that they were in a dilemma because 16 and 17-year-olds could not stand as candidates, buy lottery tickets or alcohol and get married.
The Conservative Party’s communities spokesman Paul Holmes said it was a ploy by Labour, whose unpopularity had forced them to take major constitutional decisions without consultation.
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