The newly appointed acting National Youth Coordinator of the National Youth Authority, Ras Mubarak, is proposing a reduction in the voting age from 18 to 16 years.
Mubarak said he believes the move will empower more young people to be part of the decision-making process of who leads them.
Speaking to XYZ News after his swearing in ceremony in Accra Tuesday, Ras Mubarak said the alienation of the youth in the electoral process discourages them from contributing to national issues.
He said he found it odd that young people, according to Ghana’s laws, can give sexual consent at the age of 16 and also do light work, according to the Children’s Act, at the age of 15 and therefore pay taxes but yet cannot vote until they are 18.
“More often when we talk about empowering young people, we don’t really give meaning to empowering them”, Mubarak bemoaned.
According to Mubarak, “…if they are doing light work, it means they pay taxes. They should have a say in who becomes their President; who spends their tax money; so going forward in the future, we probably will have to consider reducing the voting age from 18 to 16 because young people feel alienated”.
