16-years-old and 17-years-old can no longer vote

Elections, 16-years-old and 17-years-oldElections.Photo: Erlend Aas / Scanpix

The trial order with voting rights for 16-years-old and 17-years-old people will not be continued

The trial order with voting rights for 16-years-old and 17-years-old people will not be continued. It is apparent from the municipality’s proposal for 2018.

As a test scheme, 16- and 17-years-old people have been able to vote in 20 municipalities at the last two local elections. Now the scheme is evaluated, and the Government believes there is no basis for continuing it.

However, the reduced voting age has led to the fact that more young people have been elected. There is no big support for letting the youngest vote in the population, however.

– It indicates that there is a general satisfaction in the general public about the existing voting age of 18 years, the proposition states.

The Government also points out that there should be a correspondence between the Government age and the voting age.

Norway’s Children and Youth organization (LNU) is deeply disappointed

– We require the parliament to take responsibility for letting the 16- and 17-years-old people vote in the local elections of 2019, says Stian Seland, chairman of the LNU.

– It is very sad for democracy that the Government interrupt work on voting rights for 16-years-old people.

Two voting attempts have shown that voting rights for 16-years-old work and that it is time to release 130,000 more citizens into democracy, says the chairman of the LNU.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today