Youths
hold the power to influence the outcome of elections throughout the world,
recent trends seem to show. This follows the game changing power the youth vote
displayed in the United States of America, and most recently Zambia .
In the 2008
US presidential election, young people voted for Barack Obama by a far wider
margin than voters in other age groups. Even the republicans acknowledged the
significance of the Obama campaign’s focus on mobilising the youth vote, with
some supporters suggesting that perhaps that is what their party needed to do.
Some people have argued that any state where the popular-vote tally was close
is probably a state where the youth vote made a difference.
In recent
years, several organizations have led aggressive efforts to increase youth
turnout as citizens under 30 have traditionally had the lowest participation
rates throughout the world. Reasons for the poor youth turnout range from
unfamiliarity with the voter-registration process, lack of confidence in the
electoral system, to not having the same stake in the political system that
older voters do.
The 2011 Zambian
election showed the same trend with analysts saying that Sata’s victory was won
on the backs of disillusioned ‘swing voters’ and strong support from the one million
new youth voter bloc.
