People in Ireland will head to the polls on 24 May to vote for who they want to represent them in the European Parliament.
Young people are being encouraged to vote via a new pan-European, grassroots campaign: www.thistimeimvoting.eu
The awareness campaign was launched earlier this year in 24 languages.
Youth voting in the European Elections is consistently low, with many young people abstaining.
That is despite people aged 18-24 being the most positive about the EU, according to a post-election survey by the European Parliament in 2014.
Speaking at a “Young Voices” event organised by the National Youth Council of Ireland, #thistimeimvoting volunteer Ross Boyd said: “I’m voting in the European elections because it’s my democratic right and I also want to encourage the youth vote which is lower than the average overall turnout for the European elections.”
Campaign volunteers say higher voter turnout among young people in Ireland would show politicians that young people are passionate about politics.
They want to build on the high youth turnout in referendums in Ireland on the Eighth Amendment and Marriage Equality, and more recently for the climate strikes on Fridays across the world.
See video link below:
www.rte.ie/d0fa7147-161e-4b5b-a1e3-28686a740728
