SNP demands power to cut voting age to 16

YOU can go to war for your country, legally have sex, get married or be held responsible for a crime.

Now the Scottish Government has called for the voting age to be lowered to 16 and demanded the powers from Westminster to implement the change in Scotland.

It had previously been suggested that by giving Scotland's 131,000 16- and 17-year-olds the franchise, the SNP would pick up more votes than the other parties, which could swing results in key council and Holyrood seats.

But the call by Bruce Crawford, the SNP minister for parliament, at a meeting of the Electoral Reform Society yesterday, was also seen as an attempt to highlight divisions between Westminster and Holyrood.

At Westminster, lowering the voting age is far down the political agenda, even though Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has given it his personal backing. Mr Crawford has now made it a priority at Holyrood.

To emphasise the SNP's commitment to giving the franchise to teenagers, he also promised a bill bringing forward direct elections to health boards in Scotland, which would include votes of 16-year-olds upwards.

If, as the SNP want, Holyrood is given complete control over elections in Scotland both for the parliament and councils, then the Scottish Government would probably be able to push through a younger voting age.

Mr Crawford said: "It is the responsibility of us all to get young people interested in the democratic process.

"While 16-year-olds can pay taxes, get married or serve in the armed forces, they effectively have to bite their lip when it comes to decisions that will affect them."

He added: "As with so much of Scotland's electoral legislation, reducing the voting age is a matter reserved to Westminster. I can see no good reason why the voting age for elections in Scotland should not be decided in Scotland by our own democratically elected parliament, representing the people of Scotland."

The move was welcomed by the Liberal Democrats and the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), both of whom have been campaigning for a considerable time to lower the voting age.

Amy Rodger, the ERS Scotland director, said: "Just as Scotland has shown the way by introducing STV (single transferable votes] for its local elections, we are delighted the Scottish Government is now also taking the lead on this issue."

But Labour and the Tories, who in the end are likely to decide in Westminster whether to lower the voting age, were far more cautious in their approach to the issue.

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "Labour has examined the merits of lowering the voting age to 16. Any change is best dealt with across all elections rather than a piecemeal approach."

David McLetchie, for the Tories, said: "Austria is the only European country which has a nationwide voting age below 18. Of the few other countries in the world that do, the likes of Iran, Sudan, Cuba and North Korea are hardly paragons of democratic virtue."

'We've a right to have our opinions heard'

KATIE STEWART

AS A 16-year-old, I welcome this campaign for a change in the voting age, because I believe that many 16 and 17-year-olds are as interested in the decisions made – decisions that will affect them – as most over 18s. At 16, you are considered an adult in many ways – you can leave school, work full-time, get married, start a family. Not being able to have a say in the decisions that will affect your life becomes ludicrous in the face of all that.

The power to decide the age to vote in the elections to the Scottish Parliament and to Westminster, is a reserved power, held by Westminster. But why should the age to vote in elections in our own country be a reserved matter?

Shouldn't this issue be given into the hands of the Scottish Parliament, to do with as they see fit? And why is Westminster so reluctant to allow under 18s to vote? Young people are as interested and as eager to take part in the process of government as people over 18, and we have a right for our voices and opinions to be heard.

Yes, there are 16- and 17-year-olds that are completely uninterested and probably wouldn't even use the vote – but there are many adults who don't vote and don't care about what goes on in the government.

Young people should not be denied the vote because some, maybe even the majority of them, wouldn't use it.