Referendum voting age to be cut to 16

Published on Saturday 19 September 2009 19:55

THE Scottish Government has announced 16 and 17-year-olds are to be given a vote in the independence referendum it intends to hold next year.

An SNP Referendum Bill will include a proposal to lower the voting age specifically for the poll, a move that will see the electorate enlarged by thousands of teenagers.

The move has brought accusations that the Nationalists are seeking to manipulate the poll as young voters are traditionally more sympathetic to independence.

Their plan, which emerged in a letter from the constitution minister, Mike Russell, to one of his SNP backbenchers, Aileen Campbell, would swell Scotland's 3.9 million electorate to beyond four million with the addition of 125,000 teenagers.

In his letter, Russell said it was the Scottish Government's "intention that 16 and 17-year-olds are given the opportunity to vote in the referendum… to the extent that this is practicable".

Although matters of voting franchise are reserved to Westminster, Russell said it would be possible to make provision for the change in the bill that mirrored the approach taken for elections to NHS boards.

Legislation passed this year provided for 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in two pilot elections to be held in 2010 for the Dumfries and Galloway and Fife health boards.

Russell said: "We will continue to work with electoral registration officers to ensure that as many 16 and 17-year-olds are able to vote in the referendum as possible."

The Scottish Government supports lowering the voting age to 16 for all elections. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also suggested it would be a good way to tackle the alienation of young people from politics.

The SNP believes the proposal would give it a better chance of succeeding in the referendum next year, given evidence suggesting young people are more inclined to support independence than the middle-aged and elderly. The Nationalists cited a TNS System Three poll two years ago which concluded that 47 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds would support independence, compared with 38 per cent of those aged 55 to 84.

A mock election run by the Modern Studies Association found the SNP was the most popular party among pupils. Every school in Scotland was invited to take part and, of the 1,153 pupils who did, 39.4 per cent voted SNP, 31.5 per cent Labour, 13.9 per cent Liberal Democrat, and 8.7 per cent Conservative.

According to John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, more recent data suggests that while 36 per cent of the general population favoured independence, support rose to 39 per cent among the 18 to 24 age group.

Outright opposition to independence among the young was only 20 per cent, compared with 40 per cent in older age brackets.

Russell's proposal was greeted with scepticism by Labour in Scotland, with Pauline McNeill, the Scottish party's constitution spokeswoman, claiming it was based more on "tactics than principle".

She said: "It is something they think would be in their favour, but it is questionable whether it would be. This is just desperation from the SNP. They have lost the argument on independence and now they come up with yet another scheme to try to manipulate the result they want."

She added: "The referendum bill is another example of the SNP putting their constitutional obsession ahead of jobs and front-line services. This latest attempt to change the vote is a huge distraction to getting Scotland through the recession."

Liberal Democrat finance spokesman Jeremy Purvis said: "The SNP thinks that its number one priority in Scotland is trying to create constitutional uncertainty, rather than focusing on what young people really want. I think what 16 and 17-year-olds really want is proper job opportunities, university funding and college places."

The Conservatives refused to be drawn into the row. A spokesman said: "Our position has not changed. We don't support Alex Salmond's referendum."

The SNP intends to publish the Referendum Bill around Burns Night on 25 January, aiming for a poll to be held at the end of November at around the same time as St Andrew's Day.

But the time and resources being spent on the bill and the National Conversation – the SNP constitutional debate – have angered the opposition. Last week, finance secretary John Swinney angered opposition parties when he pledged 1 million more for the Conversation in his draft budget.

Labour, Lib Dems and Tories all oppose the bill, making it extremely unlikely that it will get through parliament. Prof Curtice also questioned whether there was enough time to extend the voting franchise.

He also suggested Russell's proposal might be counterproductive, given that apathy was more evident in the young than the old. "But the SNP probably do think that it will benefit them," he said. "They've said: 'We are holding it under the Scottish Parliament's remit and, therefore, we should go for the franchise that we favour'."