ELECTION REFORMS: VOTES FOR 16 YEAR OLDS AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES FOR THE WELSH ASSEMBLY
ELECTION REFORMS: VOTES FOR 16 YEAR OLDS AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES FOR THE WELSH ASSEMBLY A historic Act in the Welsh Assembly brings institutional changes.
Elin Jones, AM is
Llywydd (Presiding Officer) of the National Assembly for Wales since May 2016 and has been a Member of Welsh Assembly since its creation in 1999. As Presiding Officer, she chairs the Business Committee and the Assembly Commission, as well as keeping order in Plenary meetings. Internationally, she represents the Assembly at meetings of the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE) and is CPA Wales Branch President. Before being elected to the Assembly, Elin served as an Aberystwyth town Councillor and was the town’s youngest ever Mayor in 1997-98.
2019 marked a memorable twelve months for the National Assembly for Wales. As our national legislature, the Senedd, entered its 21st year, a programme of events was rolled out to reflect on two decades of Welsh devolution with a pioneering Citizens’ Assembly, a festival of politics - GWLAD (‘country’ in Welsh), and the passing of legislation introducing votes at age 16 and changing the institution’s name to Senedd Cymru or Welsh Parliament. The Senedd and Elections Act which introduced these changes was significant in many senses. Firstly, the new law is the biggest change to the electoral franchise in Wales since the voting age was reduced from age 21 to 18 in 1969. Secondly, unlike most legislation considered by the Senedd, it was not introduced by the Welsh Government but rather by me as the Llywydd (Presiding Officer) on behalf of the Assembly Commission. Thanks to the 2017 Wales Act, the constitutional reforms proposed in the Bill became part of the Senedd’s legislative competence in that year. In the same year, I tasked an Expert Panel under the
34 | The Parliamentarian | 2020: Issue One | 100th anniversary issue 1920-2020
masterful leadership of Professor Laura McAllister of Cardiff University to advise and report to the Assembly Commission on matters relating to electoral reform. These included the number of Members that the Assembly needs, the most suitable electoral system, and the minimum voting age for Assembly elections. The Panel reported its findings in December 2017, recommending lowering the voting age to 16 thus providing the impetus for pressing ahead with the Senedd and Elections Bill. A consultation carried out by the Expert Panel showed that 59% of respondents supported extending the franchise to 16and 17-year olds. This important change will see around 70,000 young people in Wales join their counterparts in Scotland, Malta, Austria and elsewhere in being able to vote at 16 years old. The first opportunity to do so in Wales will be the Senedd Elections in May 2021. Of course, such a step-change will not realise its full potential in giving young people in Wales a voice in their democratic process without an accompanying programme of engagement.
“The Senedd itself has already played its part in bringing democracy closer to Wales’s younger generation. The Welsh Youth Parliament – the first of its kind in the world – is made up of 60 young people aged 11-18 from all parts of Wales, some representing minority and marginalised groups such as young carers and members of the BME community.”
