Minimum voter age should be 17: CA Yunus

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus suggested today (27 December) that the minimum voter age should be 17.

"To give their [youth] opinion on their own future, I think the voting age for them should be fixed at 17 years," he said in a video message played in an election dialogue in Dhaka.

The Forum for Bangladesh Studies (FBS) arranged the dialogue at Krishibid Institution Bangladesh.

In his video message, Prof Yunus said different countries have various age criteria for their nationals to make them voters.

He hoped the Election Reform Commission would recommend such an age.

"I may or may not choose that age. Suppose I am in favour of making young people voters early. The more young they are, the more interested they are in change — this is my argument. The youth gives them strength," the chief adviser said.

He said the youths' deep relations with information technology provide them with this strength.

Mentioning that the number of young people is huge, he said they are interested in building the country's future.

"I do not know what the Election Reform Commission will recommend. But if the majority of the people of the country like the age to be recommended by the Commission, I will accept it to reach a consensus," the chief adviser said.

He said the government has constituted 15 reform commissions for the country, and the Commissions will submit their reports in January.

Prof Yunus said, "All the commissions will make many recommendations to us. We have now reached a stage where, whatever anyone's opinion, we want to accomplish the reforms by quickly establishing a consensus."

He said the interim government wants to make arrangements so that "we can move forward on the path of elections."