PACE mulls lowering voting age to 16
Azerbaijan, Baku, March 17 / Trend M.Aliyev /
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) Political Affairs Committee discussed lowering the voting age to 16, Azerbaijani Delegation to PACE head, MP Samad Seyidov told Trend.
He added that the older generation's interest in voting dies away and steps must be taken to attract more youth to vote.
The issue was widely discussed at the commission meeting, Samedov said.
The right to vote is granted at the age of 18 in most countries today.
"The age requirement for the right to vote and to be elected is cited in the Constitution. It seems a bit utopian to think 47 countries will make changes to their constitutions," Seyidov said.
Only Austria has tried to lower the voting age to 16 so far, he said.
The initiative was proposed by a Serbian MP.
