Young people vote for their voice
15 April 2010
Young people turned out in their thousands in Bolton and have voted for their new youth MPs.
Young people turned out in their thousands in Bolton and have voted for their new youth MPs.
The results were revealed yesterday, with Asim Iqbal (17) and Lauren Webb (15) announced as Bolton’s Youth MPs for the next two years. They will now take their place in the national UK Youth Parliament group.
Voting vans visited local schools and youth clubs to encourage young people to vote for their favourite representative. Young people watched a DVD containing one minute speeches from each of the eight candidates and then placed their vote at official ballot boxes or online on the Connexions website.
Over three times as many young people took part in the voting process compared to last year, with a total of 10,000 votes being placed.
On hearing the result Asim said: “Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me, I want to let the young people of Bolton know that if they have any problems they can come to me and I will help them.”
Lauren said, “I am so happy to be Bolton’s Youth MP, my main aim is to get more activities for young people in Bolton.”
The Youth MPs will not represent a political party as the UK Youth Parliament is independent from party politics. Instead they will stand for issues that affect young people in Bolton.
Last year’s Youth MPs, Christie Fisher and Wangu Chafuwa will now become deputy Youth MPs.
Councillor Ebrahim Adia, Executive Member for Children’s Services at Bolton Council, said: “Congratulations to Asim and Lauren, I’m sure they will take the opportunity to be ambassadors for Bolton, and make sure that young people’s opinions are heard loud and clear.”