DATA available on the Election Commission’s website seems to confirm that in the upcoming elections, the votes of the young will matter and will have the potential to change the country’s political landscape. That is, of course, if the youth go out and vote. As per the age-wise breakdown of the recently released electoral rolls, 40 million out of 84.3 million voters are aged between 18 and 35. The 18-25 age bracket consists of 16.2m voters while the 26-35 group, which contains 23.8m voters, constitutes the biggest chunk out of six age groupings. Yet despite the numbers, there is little to show that political parties, at least the older, more established ones, have done much to attract young voters. Comparatively, the PTI has made greater attempts to reach out to younger Pakistanis, taking advantage of the fact that the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 2002. When more established parties have targeted the youth, it has been through laptop schemes and other such gimmicks. They have forwarded hardly any solid policy prescriptions concerning the issues the youth face.

If these parties want to stay relevant and include this huge bloc of voters in the democratic project, they will have to come to terms with this demographic reality. This must especially be reflected in party manifesto. The main problems that confront young people — equitable access to education, health and job opportunities — need to be addressed. The young voter of today is quite well-informed and somewhat sceptical, and parties will need to court young Pakistanis through substantive solutions and not through the charisma of leaders or glittering promises. Another question mark is whether the majority of this youth bloc will be motivated to make it to polling stations come election day. After all, persuading young people to attend rallies or offer support in cyberspace is one thing; translating this support into success at the ballot box is another. Convincing young voters that their voices matter and mobilising them is something the parties will have to work harder at.