Member's statement: Voting Age

Member's statement by Ms Kellie Armstrong on 9 September 2024.

MLA

Ms Kellie Armstrong

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

9 September 2024

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Voting Age

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4511128

Read the official Assembly record

Text

This coming weekend, on 15 September, is International Day of Democracy. Each one of us is in this Chamber because citizens used their vote to elect us to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Some people in Northern Ireland, however, are excluded from being able to vote. In Scotland and Wales, 16- and 17-year-olds are able to cast their democratic vote to have a say in who will govern in their local government area and local Parliament, but our 16- and 17-year-olds here are not entrusted with the same democratic right as those elsewhere across the UK and it is time that that were changed. Some say that a 16- or 17-year-old is too young, not able to understand or too inexperienced to cast a vote. As a woman, I know that 100 years ago — more than 100 years ago — they were saying that about women, and look at how that has changed. We have a female First Minister, a female deputy First Minister and a female Minister of Justice. Each year, politicians and society celebrate how well our 16- and 17-year-olds do in exams. Why, on the one hand, are those intelligent and amazing people being celebrated for their achievements but, on the other hand, are being denied the ability to vote? Why do we celebrate our Youth Assembly and youth forums across Northern Ireland but exclude them from their democratic right? Negative assumptions about the ability of younger voters are discussed in a blog that Professor David Runciman of the University of Cambridge published in June 2024. He sets out how presumptions about younger voters did not materialise in Germany, Belgium or Greece when their voting age was lowered. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds were far from predictable and were found to replicate the voting patterns of other age groups. It is important to remember that younger voters want to vote. In a recent NUS survey, 97% of respondents said that they would vote in future elections. If only all age groups would turn out in such a high percentage. If Scotland and Wales can do it, Northern Ireland should enable 16- and 17-year-olds to have democratic rights that are equal to those of their peers elsewhere in the UK. We have all been elected as MLAs because of the democratic process. Enabling votes at the age of 16 for council and Assembly elections would be a positive and progressive step for Northern Ireland. As many in the House know, voting age is a matter that is excepted under paragraph 12 of schedule 2 to the 1998 Act. The Assembly has no power to make the change. That would need a Act of Parliament, so I wrote to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to ask that the legislation regarding the voting age in Northern Ireland elections be updated to enable people who are aged 16 and above to vote. The Secretary of State responded, confirming that it is his wish to extend that democratic right to 16- and 17-year-olds. Indeed, Labour committed in its manifesto to extending the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds. In 2012, Sinn Féin's Megan Fearon tabled a motion calling for votes at the age of 16, and the House passed it, so I say to the Secretary of State —

— you have the time, please bring the vote forward.

556 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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