Guyana’s Young Voters: Ignorant or Apathetic?

Nov 26, 2018 News

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Young people are not known for their love of politics. In fact, for the 2015 General Election and 2016 Local Government Elections, political parties saw it fit to pander heavily to this demographic, since persons between the ages 18 and 35 made up almost half of the eligible voter population, and for some time, this group has had a reputation for disinterest in political loyalties. This year, that demographic amounts to a demanding majority of eligible voters. While older generations were known to vote strictly along racial and party lines, with fierce loyalty to a binary of political veterans, young voters seem to be choosing another option: Neither.
As the youth population grows over the years, it has been a challenge for political veterans who make up the bulk of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and the A Partnership for National Unity – Alliance For Change coalition (APNU+AFC) to come up with the best methods of galvanizing this demographic. The voter turnout for the 2018 Local Government Election was 36 percent, an 11 percent drop from 47% in the 2016 election.
Last week, Attorney-At-Law and AFC stalwart Nigel Hughes, posted photos on Facebook of a crowd of young people at a party and said “The youth are otherwise engaged. In the same week that the young people rejected the current political environment by staying away from the polls, they crossed all barriers to gather at a Block Party event at Giftland. They need a new day and a different way. Better Must Come.”
To understand why young Guyanese appear so disinterested in political systems, Kaieteur News interviewed a few young changemakers to figure out how they view the relationship between young, eligible voters and the political climate.

Why aren’t young people turning out to the polls?
University of Guyana Student Society President, Devta Ramroop, said bluntly that “[Young people] feel like the younger generation should take over. Only the other day, I had a few friends who were talking about starting a party. But we know we won’t get the support. Some of them don’t have confidence in the people in [government] and they’re tired of the same promises. No action, different party.”
For Ramroop, it’s not that youth aren’t involved. It’s that they’re ready to lead, rather than follow.
However, Ramroop’s predecessor, Ron Glasgow, has other views: “Young people aren’t showing up for the polls (non-National Elections) because we fail to understand how important the elections are, ergo, don’t assign our time and effort to going out and voting. In the case of the LGE, most youths are unable to appreciate the importance because they weren’t conscious enough when LGE ‘was important.’ For many, I think it’s simply a knowledge and experience deficit.”
Devica Uditram, Head of the Youth Arm of Guyana Pandits’ Council agrees that there is a knowledge deficit. She believes that voter education about LGE is important, because young voters, who’ve had very little exposure to it, just don’t know why it’s important. She also said that young people aren’t seeing enough real development.
“Some young people refuse to go and vote simply because they see no improvement in their communities.”
Lastly, she said that there is little opportunity for youth involvement, which is being stifled by the political behemoths.
“For example, in my constituency, one person has been contesting for a particular party for several years. The older folks are not allowing the younger persons to get involved.”
Ryan Hoppie, Chairman of Come Alive Network Inc. told Kaieteur News, “I engaged with young people from across the political spectrum and many of them feel disenfranchised. If youth cannot trust you, they will not support you.”

What would it take to get more youths involved in social and political movements?
Tony Bowen, a popular DJ around Georgetown, has a lot of exposure to young people, and has built quite the reputation for himself. When asked what it would take to get youth more involved, he said: “Elections are just like anything in the world. It needs valid and proactive promotion to get anywhere. This is an era of the millennial and as such, I don’t think many of them are properly educated on what local government elections actually are and what the benefits are (myself included). The young people aren’t going out because they aren’t educated and it doesn’t seem relevant. If we want them to vote, we need to educate them. That’s all.”
Juliana Lopes, a staunch advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights for young people, believes that “To get young people involved in social and political movements, there needs to be focus on diminishing party politics. Young people do have opinions but they may feel that they need to conform to one societal view of politics”
According to Hoppie, “Politics are much more complex and bureaucratic and it will take creating new spaces for youth to operate in that can support already established visions within parties. These spaces need to be crafted through consultation with youth. They need to have that genuine sense of comfort with our political leaders and there is no better way to build this rapport than to listen to them and address their priority issues or at least try to.”
On that very note of giving young people a voice, Director of ASPIRE Youth Network, Dennis Glasgow said, “The same way we’ve made progress in party politics to have quotas for women to be in leadership positions, we need to have quotas for youth in party leadership and the positions they hold. Until we can see ourselves reflected in those positions, in the main parties then we will continue to remain disengaged. My call is for parties to include quotas for youth in their 2020 manifestos and stay true to it. We don’t want to be merely used to hype our peers at Fish Shop rallies and be forgotten when parties take office and fill seats with senior citizens.”

What are the issues most important to youths?
Grace Hutson is a radio host at 21. She’s known for stimulating conversations on a wide range of social issues that affect youth in Guyana. She said, “Young people need jobs. I have friends who have graduated and are struggling. It’s sad that we are not guaranteed a job when we graduate, unless we know people. We also need a thriving social community. But every other organisation that caters to enhancing your social life with merits is an NGO. (GRPA, SASOD etc..) What about investing in those? Even if it’s sports or the arts, these are things young people gravitate towards. Make it an essential provision.”
According to Interim Chairman of Guyana National Youth Council, Derwayne Wills, “Young people are invested in their survival. They demand jobs, access to financing and financial intelligence, access to reasonable incomes and scholarship opportunities which allow them to live and save altogether. They demand respect for their crafts and the lifting of the standard and remuneration for more vocational skills.”
Uditram concurs: “Job security, financial security, social security, affordable and accessible tertiary education and scope for academic and professional development” are the most pressing issues for the youth population.”

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