Thursday, March 28, 2024
In BriefNearly 85,000 vote in Scottish Youth Parliament elections

Nearly 85,000 vote in Scottish Youth Parliament elections

Professor John Curtice will oversee the elections

In 2011 the Scottish Youth Parliament held its most successful set of elections yet, the organisation says.

Almost 85,000 young people voted for their local MSYP (Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament).

But the Parliament says it wishes to strengthen and enhance its election procedures still further, and has called in a nationally renowned expert.

Today it is announcing that it has established an Independent Commission to examine how its elections should be conducted in future.

The Commission will be headed by Strathclyde University elections expert Professor John Curtice.

The other members of the Commission are: David Anderson, Chief Executive of South Ayrshire Council Rhona Brankin, former MSP and Minister for Communities; Derek Couper, former Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament; and Gillian Lithgow, National Programmes Manager at YouthLink Scotland.

The Commission will report to the Scottish Youth Parliament in late summer 2012.

Professor Curtice, Chair of the Commission, said: “The SYP has an important role to play both in promoting civic participation amongst Scotland’s young people and in ensuring their voice is heard in communities across the length and breadth of the country.

“The Independent Commission’s job is to identify how the Parliament can run its elections in a way that maximises the number of young people who become involved in its work, both as voters and candidates.”

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