{"id":269355,"date":"2025-07-17T12:59:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269355\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:59:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:59:15","slug":"northern-irelands-first-minister-welcomes-intention-to-lower-voting-age-to-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269355\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s First Minister welcomes intention to lower voting age to 16"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Ireland\u2019s First Minister has welcomed an announcement by the UK Government that it intends to lower the voting age to 16.<\/p>\n<p>Ministers are to bring forward a Bill before 2029 which will include extending the right to vote to 16 and 17-year-olds, and work to create a system of automated voter registration.<\/p>\n<p>Teenagers aged 16 or over can already vote in Holyrood, Senedd and local government elections in Wales and Scotland, but not in UK parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n<blockquote placeholder=\"\" data-theme=\"light\" class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p>I welcome the news that the British Government is to introduce votes from the age of 16 for elections.<\/p>\n<p>This is a step forward for democracy and will enable young people to have a say in their future.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll now be contacting the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, urging him to\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michelle O\u2019Neill (@moneillsf) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/moneillsf\/status\/1945799795249205497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:July 17, 2025;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">July 17, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It is not known yet whether the legislation will be in place before the next election to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the local government elections in the region set to take place in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Michelle O\u2019Neill described a \u201cstep forward for democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll now be contacting the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, urging him to ensure that the right to vote at 16 applies to the 2027 Assembly and Council elections in the north,\u201d she said in a post on the social media network X.<\/p>\n<p>SDLP leader Claire Hanna said voting rights should be changed at all levels.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview\" alt=\"Claire Hanna\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4ad5f3c44d8161a2d6f44504f6f7c916.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Claire Hanna said voting rights should be changed at all levels (PA)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnfranchising 16 and 17-year-olds has been a long held SDLP position and we welcome confirmation from the Government today that this will be in place for the next general election,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are many young people in Northern Ireland actively engaged in politics and I know that for generations there has been frustration that they could not play a full role in the democratic process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe SDLP believes that these voting rights must stretch beyond general elections and be extended to voting for the Assembly and local councils.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will continue to make the case for that at Westminster and push for change to secure voting at all levels for 16 and 17-year-olds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was also a call to ensure the legislation is in place by 2027 from the Alliance Party.<\/p>\n<p>North Antrim MLA Sian Mulholland said: \u201cWe have long-argued that the disenfranchisement of our society\u2019s young people is a major democratic deficit here in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, time is of the essence and we need urgent clarification that it will be a priority to see this implemented in time for the next NI Assembly election in 2027. We cannot afford any further delay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s First Minister has welcomed an announcement by the UK Government that it intends to lower the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[49078,6415,807,102424,1434,1144,39255,16,102425,15,12960],"class_list":{"0":"post-269355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-british-prime-minister","9":"tag-claire-hanna","10":"tag-keir-starmer","11":"tag-local-government-elections","12":"tag-michelle-oneill","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-northern-ireland-assembly","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-uk-parliamentary-elections","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-voting-rights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114868701465299553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}