September 28, 2017
Low turn-out concern for Tirikatene
Newly re-elected Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene wants to see something done to boost the number of young people who enrol and vote.
Turnout in the Maori seats in Saturday’s election was lower than in general seats, and there were also large numbers of young Maori who didn’t get on the roll in time to vote.
Mr Tirikatene says instilling in high school students the need to enrol and vote may be a way to tackle that.
"Every vote counts under MMP. For them to feel so disengaged, I guess they don't feel the political system is relating to them and that's a travesty. We really need to work urgently to address that. Here's hoping that once the reviews are conducted for this general election specific initiatives are put in place to address that issue around our rangatahi," he says.
Rino Tirikatene says it’s a failure of democracy to have so many people not participating.
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