Young voters want action, not election promises
Only 58.46 per cent of voters aged 18 to 20 voted in the 2022 election.
Wednesday 12 August 2026 | 12:00
From left: National Youth Council of Fiji (NYCF) president Laisani Sepo and board member Vipin Maharaj on March 16, 2026.
Photo: Supplied
Broken trust in politicians is contributing to declining youth voter turnout, according to the National Youth Council of Fiji (NYCF).
NYCF president Laisani Sepo and board member Vipin Maharaj said young Fijians were staying away from the polls not because they did not care about politics, but because politicians made promises they never kept.
Voter turnout has fallen from 84.6 per cent in 2014 to 71.9 per cent in 2018 and 68.3 per cent in 2022, with only 58.46 per cent of voters aged 18 to 20 casting ballots at the last election.
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Ms Sepo said the drop was linked to broken trust between leaders and communities.
“Most politicians, they promise this, they promise that, but they don't really look at the needs of the community, of those who are out in the maritime area, or those with a geographical location, different communities, with different geographical locations,” she said.
She said this affected access to networks, development and basic services.
“When people vote, they have hope,” Ms Sepo said. “And when their hope is not met, that's when they start losing interest.”
Mr Maharaj, who also chairs the NYCF Governance Committee, said the problem went deeper than a single election cycle.
“If young people experience political engagement as transactional, then we have a problem,” he said. “We cannot tell a generation that ‘your voice matters’ only when somebody needs their vote.”
He said many young voters also could not vote because they had moved for study or work without updating their polling address, a problem Supervisor of Elections Ana Mataiciwa raised last year.
Ms Sepo said the Council could not force people to vote but was working to remind them that their voice counted.
Mr Maharaj said NYCF was planning a Youth Plenary around International Youth Day, with a session on “Empowering Young People in Democracy and Elections,” to hear directly from young voters about what was stopping them from voting.
“Young people are not a campaign demographic,” he said. “They are citizens.”
