The implementation of training program for primary-school te(27)

(G)  Age of Voters in the districts.
This refers to the proportion of the population that is eligible to vote in the local elections. In general, if the percentage of the voter population is made up of the youngest electorally significant cohort, thus those from the ages of 18 to 39 years in a particular district, then that district is likely to register low turnout in the local elections. This is because unlike the national elections where stakes are high and therefore the political parties do everything within their power to woo these youngest voters who constitute about (65%-70%) of the voting population to go to the polls through such means like distribution of fiscal cash, free T’-shirts, drinks, food and other material benefits as well as promise of securing visas and good jobs for them. In Ghana, because the youth between the ages of 18 and 39 constitute the majority of voter population in Ghana, all the political parties have youth wing with national executive position in the form of ‘National Youth Organizer’ within the parties as a strategy to win more youth vote. However, in the local elections, the stakes are relatively low and most of the candidates are poor with the majority being teachers who are unable to raise personal income to attract the youth to participate in the electoral process at the local level where the election is non-partisan.
The youngest voters are less likely to participate than their elders, possibly for generational reasons, but definitely for life-cycle reasons, namely; they are highly mobile, have developed less of a stake in their communities, and they have less knowledge about electoral processes, voting and candidates.
In their research of electoral participation in Bangladesh, Baldersheim, Jamil and Aminuzzaman (2001:62) hypothesize based on the life-cycle argument that, “The higher the number of middle-aged voters, the greater is the level of mobilization and higher is the turnout. They consider the middle-aged voters to have more at stake and so more involved in the affairs of the community. They see middle-age people as people whose lives mainly depend on government services, because they have begun acquiring assets like houses and vehicles. They are also, people who have started giving birth to children and therefore may be looking for quality education, efficient medical services and many more for their children which depend much more on government’s policies and so they tend to show more interests and concerns in politics.