There are, however, new legislative initiatives being taken in some countries to introduce different kinds of youth quotas for young people to be meaningfully represented in the electoral process. Quotas are not the only measure and are not necessarily the best solution to under-representation, but they can be considered along with other measures. Three types of quotas are mainly used today[i]:

1.   reserved seats (constitutional and/or legislative) (See Reserved seats) 

2.   legal candidate quotas (constitutional and/or legislative) (See Legal candidate quotas) 

3.   voluntary political party quotas. 

Voluntary party quotas

In countries with no legal provisions guaranteeing a minimum of young people on candidate lists or reserved seats for young people, political parties can opt to introduce voluntary quotas to ensure that a minimum of young candidates are represented on their lists. 

Political party quotas are part of a political party’s internal regulations and cannot be enforced by EMBs. Yet despite their voluntary nature, it is encouraging to see that many political parties have established voluntary quotas for young people. To name only a few: in Cyprus, the Movement for Social Democracy adopted a 20 per cent quota for candidates under 35 years old in 2010; and in Nicaragua, the Sandinista Front for National Liberation has had a 15 percent quota for youth in party leadership and electoral lists since 2002.[ii] 

Voluntary party-based quotas in constituency-based electoral systems, generally relating to gender, have been shown to work successfully in some parts of the world, as can be seen with the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. In the South African Development Community (SADC) region, the ruling ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe, like the ANC in South Africa and the FRELIMO in Mozambique, has a voluntary quota for both women and youth.[iii] ZANU-PF, despite being the ruling party, still lacks in its representation of women, a situation that worsens in elections where the party faces strong opposition.[iv]