Bernama | 4 August 2008

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 (Bernama) -- Politicians should create a 'peer-to-peer' relationship with the young voters to get them to understand politics, the voting system, and realise their rights as citizen, said Bermuda House of Assembly Deputy Speaker Jennifer M. Smith.

Talking from experience, Smith said she started to create rapport with the young voters since 1972 before winning her seat in 1989 after her sixth attempt.

"(Now), I have the third generation working with me," she told reporters on the sideline of the Small Branches Conference's plenary session themed 'Meeting the challenges to the Holding of Democratic Elections', here Monday.

The conference is being held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference being held here from last Friday.

She said politicans must find ways how to keep the voters, especially the young, interested in politics.

"If politicians ignore them from the time they are born until they reach voting age, then they are not going to remember you, " she said.

She said to attract the young voters, the politicians must create relationships before they could approach the young voters to vote for them.

In Bermuda, the government created leadership awards in school to instill interest in leaderships among students, and to get them exposed to politics.

-- BERNAMA