Chief Adviser suggests fixing minimum voter age at 17

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Friday suggested that the minimum voter age should be stand at 17 years.

"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.

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 voter.

He expressed his hope that the Election Reform Commission will surely 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 provides them this strength.

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

"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 while the Commissions will submit their reports in January.

Prof Yunus said: "All the commissions will place many recommendations to us. We have now reached a stage that whatever anyone’s opinion, we want to accomplish the reform works 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".

Source: BSS