OIA Poll: Young People Don't Have A Candidate That Could Attract their Votes
According to OIA, although the poll registers a noticeable increase in engagement of youth organizations of the political parties in these Municipal Elections, which has resulted in youth participation in the Electoral Lists of between 20 and 30 percent on average, the question remains whether it would suffice to provoke the interest of young voters. The fact that the main reason for the polled to decide to abstain, "We don't have anybody to vote for" is illustrative of the communication gap created between the youth and the politicians. That answer is followed closely by "I won't vote because I have been disappointed in politics", with the answer: "I am not interested in the elections at all" in the third place. According the data of the B&H Election Commission, 19.8% of the total registered voters for the 2000 Elections were young. That figure decreased to only 16.8% at the 2002 Elections. In addition to the decrease in the percentages and the actual numbers of young registered voters, there is an evident decrease in the youth election turnout. For example, in the last Parliamentary Elections, only 13.7 percent of the voters that participated were younger than 30 years of age. However, the most disappointing fact is that only one quarter (about 25%) of the young registered voters voted in 2002. For a person to enter the legislative branch of the government, that person has to pe placed on an electoral list and have to win enough votes in the elections. The percentage of young candidates on the electoral lists in the last round of elections hovered around 20%. Nonetheless, should we analyse all 14 parliaments currently working in B&H (on state, entity, cantonal and Brcko Distric levels), there are only 36 young out of the total of 608 representatives, or 5.92 percent. In other words, over 94 percent of the persons charged with the task to create and adopt legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina are people older than 30. The figures are progressively worsening as we move towards the higher levels of government. Thus, the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H has no Representative younger than 36 (in the German Bundestag, the youngest representative is only 18, half the age of our youngest representative). Figures for the entity assemblies stand at 3.3% for the BH Federation and 2.4% for the RS. The "Youngest" Canton is the Bosansko-Podrinski, with over 24% of young representatives in the Cantonal Parliament. On the other hand, that is the only Assembly without a Committee for Youth Policies which is a regular body in the other cantons. In addition to the State Parliament, the only cantonal Parliament without young people is the Assembly of the Posavski Canton. While we are at the Government youth policies and bodies, we should say that Bosnia and Herzegovina is the sole country in Europe without a proper Government institution for the Youth, in spite of the fact that the Parliament charged the Council of Ministers with the task of establishing such an agency with its Youth Resolution of 2002, based on the conclusions and recommendations by the 145 session of the Presidency of B&H of July 29, 2002. In the conclussion, the OIA Report states that there are no young people in the Executive Branch; that the Executive doesn't recognize the needs and interests of the youth population; the young are almost competely absent from the legislation as well; and the legislative branch lacks the most basic bodies and institutions that would work on youth related affairs. There are young candidates on the election lists, but the young voters choose to abstain. There are still young people in B&H (23% of the population), but that figure is dwindling, too. |
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