The peaceful and powerful youth-led uprisings in the Arab world brought young people back onto the world stage as serious political actors with the right and capacities to be equally included in politics. However, young women and men are not represented in electoral processes in a way that reflects their population size and potential assets and contributions to enhance inclusive representation. Elections lie at the heart of democracy and effective and inclusive participation of all citizens—including youth—in elections and broader political processes is critical to democratic development. Expectations are high that the inclusion of youth in electoral processes will increase. Significant frustration is likely to arise if this does not happen, with a potentially destabilizing effect on democratization.
A number of stakeholders, including Election Management Bodies (EMBs), can play a critical role when it comes to including the world’s largest-ever youth population in elections and broader political and peacebuilding processes. The youth are not homogenous and do not operate in a vacuum; it is desirable for them to collaborate with a variety of state and non-state actors – especially youth organizations – to promote elections that are inclusive of young people, and especially of young women and youth from marginalized groups.
Creating an enabling and empowering environment for youth participation in electoral processes and the building of peace is a vital part of strengthening democratic governance. As this topic area illustrates, strategies to support youth participation ideally span all phases of the electoral cycle. This entails strategically addressing the:
