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Photo: Kenzo Tribouillard Video by Jeremy Audouard
When Belgium takes part in the EU elections in June, Generation Z will take power. The new law will also allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote for the first time.
In response to this prospect, Belgium’s leading university, the University of California, Leuven, held a mock election on Wednesday so that hundreds of high school students could consider what to do about their right to vote.
The simulation saw dozens of young voters fill out their ballots and deposit them in a box outside the lecture hall, while political science professors explained the principles and processes involved to hundreds of students. It was done.
“The large number of invalid votes submitted certainly proves that voting rules are still not well understood,” said Stéphane Moisson, one of the professors at the University of California, Leuven campus in the southern city of Mons. “It was done,” he said.
The number of voters in Belgium is expected to increase by nearly 300,000 under a 2022 law that will allow Belgians aged 16 and 17 to vote in European elections without conditions.
Teenagers of the same age from other EU countries residing in Belgium can also vote, but only if they are registered on the electoral register by the deadline at the end of next month.
The move means the country joins Austria, Germany, Greece and Malta in allowing under-18s to vote.
However, the minimum voting age remains 18 years old for national elections in Belgium and Germany.
In Belgium, EU and federal elections will be held on the same day on June 9th.
European elections will be held from June 6th to 9th across the 27-nation European Union.
Wednesday’s mock voting at three UC Leuven campuses showed how Belgian teenagers would trend in the EU elections, as the candidates and parties listed on their ballots were fictitious. I couldn’t get any insight into whether it was there.
But one factor that pervades mini-mock voters is their reliance on social media, especially TikTok, as a source of political information.
“If you’re going to vote, you’re going to see different ideas from people voting on social media,” 16-year-old Manon Leclerc said after putting her ballot in the box.
“For example, there are so many politicians and political ideologies on TikTok, and a little less on Instagram, but still a lot,” she said.
Amin El Bakkouri, 17, who played the role of a poll worker, said he reads newspapers but sources his information “mainly from social media.”
“I think it’s the most vivid, broadest, most complete source of information for young people,” he said, also citing Instagram and TikTok as preferred outlets.
As in many other countries, TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has quickly become the go-to social media app for young Belgian users and a major source of news and opinion.
Since last year, TikTok and other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have been subject to stricter EU rules and oversight under a law aimed at cracking down on illegal content.
TikTok announced Wednesday that it is preparing content moderation staff and systems to combat misinformation in the lead-up to the European elections and is working to thwart “covert influence operations.”
Moisson said political parties should strengthen their presence and messaging on social media because that’s where young voters are.
But he cautioned that “messages on social media are often very short and need to be perfected through events like this session organized by universities.”
“Through more nuanced discussions, deeper collective discussions, young voters will be able to get an idea of the political program and its details,” he said.
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