Youths’ lack of political participation examined

Regardless of being energetic on social media platforms, the youth’s electoral participation is abysmally low in comparison with worldwide democracies. Except methods to extend their turnout are devised and applied, democracy is at the specter of being unrepresentative.

These issues have been raised at a Dialogue organized in Lahore by PILDAT and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Pakistan, titled ‘Lacking Younger Voters of Pakistan’. Director Protocol ECP Qurat-ul-Ain Fatima highlighted the ECP’s steady efforts to have interaction and educate Pakistan’s youth concerning the significance of their vote.

She highlighted the ECP’s SVEEP programme, which focuses on educating new voters and has accomplished 443 periods in faculties, faculties and universities throughout Pakistan. To actively pursue the youthful, tech-savvy technology, they collaborate with YouTubers and vloggers attending seminars and workshops, to additional the message of voting to their viewers.

In 2018, the ECP Protocol Wing launched an internship programme in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, providing college students a possibility to instantly study concerning the election course of.

Qurat-ul-Ain recommended reserving seats for younger representatives within the Senate and Nationwide and Provincial Assemblies and introducing elections and democracy as a obligatory a part of the schooling syllabus.

President PILDAT Ahmed Bilal Mehboob stated that if the youth is just not led on democratic paths, they’re prone to growing extremist and radical tendencies, which can threaten the existence of democracy inside the nation.

A comparability of India and Pakistan’s youth voting developments was made by Mehboob, after which he introduced examples of democracies from all over the world and highlighted their revolutionary efforts to extend younger voter turnout.

Printed in The Categorical Tribune, November 5^th, 2022.