Socio-legal justifications for youth suffrage in South Sudan

Abstract

This paper is about Youth Suffrage and discusses minimum voting age in South Sudan. It questions the validity and appropriateness of the prevailing minimum voting age of 18 and proposes a minimum voting age framework of 16 years in line with socio-legal justifications in the country. The paper presented in six chapters which outlay specific contents. Chapter One is the introduction and formulate the research hypothesis, the research questions, research method, theoretical underpinnings, and contextual background of the research the encompasses a brief history of South Sudan in the context and background analysis of the problem that necessitate the research. Chapter Two reviews the literature that discuses Universal Suffrage and Youth Suffrage. It also reviews the experiences of countries that have had minimum voting age lowered including lessons learnt from those countries. The Chapter also looks into the intellectual arguments presented on the questions of maturity and democratic prudence more in more depth. Chapter three and Four analyse perceptions and international standards respectively on the ages of participations. Chapter Five attempts a framework for minimum voting age in South Sudan. In conclusion, this paper is a report of an original research on a question