© 2018 Discovery Publica ARTICLE PERSPECTIVE Youth Participation Chigozie Azunna 1 , Sam Botch The study was carried out to provide an und processes. The objective of the study measured Municipality, investigated and identified facto Municipality. The study applied a qualitative r number of factors posed challenges to the you from negative attitudes of the youth towards p backed by poor education background, poverty be educated by their parents, teachers, church e towards participating in the local electoral proce INTRODUCTION Political participation by the masses of any given so globally accepted as a fundamental attribute o government cannot be said to be representative of the not involved. Participation like other concepts in so been open to varying definitions by scholars. Nie defines it as “those legal activities by private citizen less directly aimed at influencing the selection personnel and/or the actions they take”. Throu governments have placed emphasis on efforts to sections of their populace in the electoral processes (national and sub-national). Youth participation in the political process, electoral processes has been encouraged by the Uni considers youth participation in electoral processes a of hope and aspiration of nations. Youth particip processes provides them with experience and oppo future participation in the municipal, provinc government. As a consequence, since the last decade governments across the world have been laying e political participation. In the North-West Province, a South Africa, the youth participate in the electora municipality through their Local Youth Councils. In South Africa, Local Municipality’s (LM) are c categories (Cameron, 1999). Category A is a Mu exclusive executive and legislative authority in its are Municipality that shares municipal executive and legi its area with a category C Municipality within who Category C is a Municipality that has municip legislative authority in an area that includes more than Based on the categories of the Municipalities, Municipality falls under category B of the Act (M PERSPECTIVE ISSN 2278–5469 EISSN 2278–5450 Department of Development Studies, North-West University Private Bag X2046, Mmabatho 2735, South Africa ation. All Rights Reserved. www.discoveryjournals.org OPEN ACCES n in Electoral Processe hway 2 derstanding of the participation of the Municipality’s d and examined the extent of youth participation in the loc ors that prevents the youth from participating in elec research methodology, questionnaires and interviews w uth and hinder their participation in electoral processes. politics. Also, employment/income, age, gender and rac and unemployment. The study recommends that the you elders and the Mafikeng community to enable them acqui esses. ociety has come to of democracy, as e people if they are ocial sciences have and Verba (1972) ns that are more or of governmental ughout the world, o engage different s, at various levels especially in the ited Nations which as the embodiment pation in electoral ortunities for their cial and national of the 20 th century, emphasis on youth as in other parts of al processes of the classified into three unicipality that has ea. Category B is a islative authority in ose area it falls and pal executive and n one Municipality. , Mafikeng Local Municipality System Act, 2000). Youth participation in Mafikeng processes or any municipality is an processes of that municipality. Participa the understanding of youth role and electoral process, governance, decision-m More importantly, youth participation i municipality, enable them to get involv the leadership of the municipality and to any ills in the municipality or the commu LITERATURE REVIEW Definition of Youth and Their Classifi Who are the youth and how are they c youth varies from country to country a “youth” is referred to the state or period childhood to adulthood independence. I flexible period or progression from progression or transition if applied to a country and from region to region. In m world, the number of youth who fall in years widened the unemployment gap cost to the local and national economie This is why the UN has carefully def statistical and consistency implications those persons between the ages of 1 are teenagers between 13 and 19 year between 20 to 24 years of age. From the definitions youth classifica that is, the primary and secondary yout Primary youth are those young men and 18 years to 35 years. This group of yout majority. They can enter into a business the requirement for parental, guardi 54 Disco (Mafikeng Campus), SS Page336 es youth in the local electoral cal electoral processes of the ctoral processes within the were used to collect data. A . These challenges emanated ce were some salient factors uth in the Municipality should ire skills and positive attitude g municipality local electoral essential aspect of the voting pation provides basic platform to involvement in the municipal making and community projects. in the electoral processes of the ved in the processes of electing o hold the leaders accountable for unity development. ications classified? The definition of the and society to society. The term d of change from dependence of It could also be referred to as a childhood to adulthood. This age limit varies from country to most countries and regions of the nto secondary youth has over the increasing social and economic es of these countries or regions. fined the youth considering the s amongst the member states as 15 and 24 years. Within these rs of ages; and young adults as ations can be narrowed into two, th. According to NYDA (2008), d women within the age group of th are seen as youth in the age of s contract independently without ian or representative consent. 4(273), September 1, 2018 overy