Where are young voters?: Part 1: Absent from voter meetings

Currently, at many meetings with voters of National Assembly deputies and People's Councils at all levels, there are very few young people participating, or even none.

Busy with work

Attending the meeting of the National Assembly Delegation of Hai Duong province with voters of Kim Thanh district before the 8th session of the 15th National Assembly in Phu Thai town at the end of September 2024, we saw that in the entire conference with more than 100 voters, only the Kim Thanh District Youth Union official was a young voter. The remaining voters were mostly between 50 and 70 years old. Therefore, there were no reflections or recommendations sent to the National Assembly delegates regarding youth and the younger generation.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh, Secretary of Kim Thanh District Youth Union, said that the district currently has about 21,000 young people, accounting for 13% of the population. Most of these young people are studying or working. The number of young people participating in associations, unions, cultural, sports and community activities every year only accounts for over 40% of the local youth.

Cultural, sports and community activities are mainly held on holidays, and only in the evenings can they attract young people to participate. “Young voters have to go to school and work, especially workers, who mainly go to school in the morning and come back in the afternoon, sometimes working overtime until the evening. Working hours are all weekdays, and some places only have Sundays off, so it is very difficult for young people to participate in meetings with National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels,” Ms. Anh shared.

A similar situation also occurred at the meeting of the delegation of the 17th Hai Duong Provincial People's Council with voters of Hai Duong City in Quang Trung Ward at the end of June 2024. Young voters and voters who are youth union members were also absent from this conference.

Mr. Nguyen Tuan Manh used to work at a business in Lai Vu Industrial Park (Kim Thanh) and was the youngest voter in Tan Viet commune (Thanh Ha) to vote for the election of deputies to the 15th National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels for the 2021-2026 term.

He told reporters: “I find the contact activities of National Assembly deputies and People’s Councils at all levels very practical, but through understanding the media, I see that the contact time is not flexible. Therefore, it is difficult to attract a large number of voters, especially young voters.”

Although he knew about the activities of the National Assembly deputies of Hai Duong province and People's Council deputies at all levels through newspapers and social networks and wanted to participate in voter contact activities, Mr. Manh himself, because of his job, had to work in shifts and only had Sundays off every week, so he could not attend.

Having never attended a voter meeting with an elected representative in Hai Duong, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang, born in 1999 in Dai Hop commune (Tu Ky) also felt the same anxiety and hesitation.

"Although I live and work locally, my schedule during the weekdays is packed with work, both at work and at home. On weekends, I just want to sleep and regain my strength," Ms. Hang shared honestly.

Lack of appeal to young voters

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong, Secretary of the District Youth Union, delegate of the Tu Ky District People's Council for the 2021-2026 term, in addition to the reason that young voters are of school and working age, making it difficult to arrange time to attend meetings with voters, there is also the reason that voters do not fully understand their responsibilities and obligations, leading to fear of contact, fear of speaking up, and not participating in forums.

On the contrary, on social networks, many young people are discussing enthusiastically about issues related to education, tourist destinations for check-in photos, social security policies, etc. These thoughts have not been conveyed to the right places, which are elected bodies and local authorities.

There are issues that young people want to discuss, but old people do not discuss at voter meetings. At local voter meetings, older voters often make recommendations on issues related to transportation, land, policies, etc. Meanwhile, young people have little time to observe the reality in their locality, and are not yet old enough to care too much about these contents, which will be difficult to understand and lead to frustration. Meanwhile, young people are more interested in policies to support training, job opportunities, support for buying social housing, or issues related to marriage policies, etc.

Meeting and communicating with voters is an important activity of National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels. Doing a good job of meeting voters will contribute to resolving voters' opinions, recommendations, legitimate aspirations and concerns.

Currently, the activities of voters contact by National Assembly deputies and People’s Councils at all levels are not attractive to young people. The explanation and reception of voters’ opinions by some deputies and local authorities are still confusing, slow, and do not meet requirements… so it is difficult to attract voters, especially young voters.

Mr. Luong Anh Te, Chairman of the Elderly Association of Hai Duong Province, who has served for many years as a secretary in meetings with voters of National Assembly deputies, Provincial People's Council deputies, and Provincial People's Council deputies, said that the main reason why young voters are not interested in meetings is that they are still formal, direct contact but some localities "act" according to a script. Voter meetings are still quite monotonous.

“I see that most of the meetings with voters follow the scenario of elected representatives gathering at one contact point, announcing the results of the National Assembly and People's Council sessions at all levels, reporting on the settlement of voters' petitions and recommendations. After that, voters make petitions and feedback. The monotony in the form of organization will make it difficult to attract voters, especially young voters,” Mr. Te assessed.

Monotony, lack of appeal, inflexible organization time, and few contact points are current limitations that prevent many voter contact conferences from attracting young people.

Next time

Needs expressed