Northern Ireland needs Australian-style compulsory voting as well as lowering the voting age to 14, writes John Coulter. He maintains these revolutionary election changes would herald more stable democracy in Northern Ireland. You can follow John on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter.

The recent local government and European polls gave the impression that unionism is no longer the dominant ideology in Northern Ireland, but that is based solely on turnout.

The local council election showed a 52 per cent turnout, while Northern Ireland’s three MEPs were elected on a 45 per cent voter turnout. In Australia, meanwhile, May’s federal elections had an almost 92 percent turnout where voting is compulsory.

This begs the clear question: how would the political map of Northern Ireland change if Australian-style mandatory voting was introduced? Australia is one of almost two dozen states that have mandatory voting laws, while less than half formally enforce them.

In Australia, registering to vote is part of the legal duties of becoming a citizen if you are aged 18 and over. Supposedly, failing to do so will result in a fine of around 20 Australian dollars, about £12. It may even mean a court appearance.

If the European Parliament election was taken as a benchmark, could the 55 percent of voters who remained at home or ignored the ballot box have made any difference to the result? Would Danny Kennedy have held the UUP seat, or would it have seen an even bigger landslide for Alliance’s Naomi Long, or would Jim Allister of the Traditional Unionist Voice have returned to the European Parliament?

At first glance, this may be seen as needless speculation and a large dose of ‘what iffery’, but Northern Ireland, in terms of democratic elections, is heading dangerously close to electing people on only an average 50 per cent turnout.

Likewise, it could be suggested that the turnout perhaps says more about the electorate’s non-engagement with the democratic process; that refusing to vote is also part of that process. In a true democracy, people can choose not to vote.

But is a 50 per cent turnout of voters a true reflection of the political mindset of Northern Ireland? If there was a border poll, a second referendum on Brexit, or Republic-style referenda on same-sex marriage or more liberal abortion and divorce legislation, would that 50 percent turnout rapidly climb?

In October 2018, a council by-election took place in Carrickfergus and the successful candidate won on only a 22 percent turnout. The DUP took the seat, which had previously been held by the late Jim Brown, a former UUP Mayor of Carrickfergus who was an Independent when he died.

Had we had compulsory voting, and a 92 percent voter turnout, would the UUP have won back the seat? Indeed, how many seats at council, Assembly, Westminster and European level have been won and lost because of the people who did not register and did not vote?

Could we have a more democratic society because mandatory voting could encourage smaller parties to enter the political fray? For instance, if the DUP and UUP became more secular in political ethos, could the Orange Order put up its own candidates campaigning on a Biblical agenda?

Is it a perception to say that lower voter turnout is favouring the Orange/Green divide and playing into the hands of the DUP and Sinn Féin?

Was Naomi Long’s 100,000-plus European vote a personal vote for her, the continued Alliance Party ‘bounce’, or merely voters using Alliance as a protest vote against the current stagnation at Stormont which has existed since January 2017? It seems this article is posing more questions than it is providing solutions.

If the Australian model is taken as a benchmark, then mandatory voting results in a more stable democracy. But mandatory voting linked to responsible citizenship will only work if there is proper education of the electorate in the political process.

For this to be achieved long-term, then the voting age should be lowered to 14. While campaigners for a lower voting age have pushed for votes at 16, with a proper curriculum of Citizenship Studies in secondary education, then the voting age at 14 will work.

In Northern Ireland, the vast majority of students who sit the transfer tests, then move into secondary-level education, are aged either 11 or 12.

In preparation for voting at 14, all secondary-level schools would have the compulsory subject of Citizenship Studies as part of every student’s timetable in much the same way as every secondary-level student takes mandatory Maths and English in preparation for GCSEs.

Just as many students are already both computer literate and social media literate by the time they are entering secondary-level education, likewise many students are already politically aware by the time they reach the age of 14.

Would we have a better quality of politician in Northern Ireland if that voter age was lowered to 14 supported by the appropriate education programme in schools? Could the current Stormont impasse have been avoided if Northern Ireland had enjoyed a flow of politically mature voters coming through the electoral system?

Many parties across Ireland have vibrant youth wings. There is even a Youth Parliament in Northern Ireland. But are these genuine attempts to involve our youth in the democratic process, or merely humour them by pretending they have a significant voice?

As someone who joined the Young Unionists, the youth wing of the UUP, as an A level student in the 1970s, I initially felt that while I was made very welcome in the party, it was more of a ‘humouring exercise’ than a serious attempt to listen to the views of youthful members of the UUP.

Of course, it gave us valuable practical experience in electioneering and canvassing, but it was always the elderly men in grey suits who had the final say in terms of the manifesto contents.

Even in today’s society, how much of an input into the election manifestos and party policies do the current youth wings of the various parties have?

Or is it still a case that youth wings of parties are merely tolerated, and like many Irish Presbyterian Church functions that I have experienced, reality is more akin to an attitude of ‘the ladies will now leave and make the tea’?

One element is a certainty: if political parties in Northern Ireland want to see a significant increase in voter numbers in the future, they will have to invest heavily in young people. Mandatory voting accompanied by Citizenship Studies on the curriculum would be excellent starts to that process.