54pc youth population never vote in any nat’l election : Study

Staff reporter :
Almost 53.8 percent of the youth population aged 18-35in Bangladesh have never voted in any national elections while 46 per cent of them could not avail the opportunity of exercising their right to franchise in local body polls also, said a study by Citizen’s Platform for SDGs yesterday.

The study also found that 43 percent of youth feel hesitant or nervous to exercise their freedom of expression.

The findings of the recent study titled “Youth Perspectives in the Current National Context”, conducted by the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, were released on Saturday.

A total of 5,075 young peopleaged between 18 and 35 were surveyed in the study which aimed at knowing their perspectives on the country’s development, as well as their voting, political participation, and freedom of expression.

Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), presented the findings of the study at the program.

While presenting the study report he showed, between the age group from 18 to 24, 80 percent of the respondents are registered in the voter list while 76.4 among them never voted in general elections.

Likewise, the percentage of respondents not voted in a national election from the age group between 25-29 and 30-35 is 34.5 and 25 per cent respectively.

However, 67.2 percent of the total respondents never contacted a political or elected representative to express their views.

The study also showed that over two-thirds of youth in Bangladesh identified corruption and nepotism as the main obstacles to development.

Additionally, 46.5 percent opined that the country is lagging behind for lack of transparency and accountability in the state of governance .

Overall, the study highlighted the concerns and challenges faced by Bangladeshi youth, as well as their potential to contribute to the country’s development.

At the conference, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, the convenor of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, emphasized the significance of the youth population which constitutes a considerable portion of Bangladesh’s demographics.

“The population of Bangladesh is now around 16.5 million, with most of them being youth aged between 18 and 35. The number and proportion of this age group are increasing every decade, making it the largest potential workforce in Bangladesh,” he said.

While addressing the upcoming elections, Dr Debapriya expressed optimism about an increased youth participation and said any concerns or doubts would dissipate in the coming days.

Meanwhile, lawmakers, teachers, researchers, students and different stakeholders also spoke at the “Youth Conference 2023”.