Voting will re-open next week for the elections to the Scottish Youth Parliament, with three candidates stepping forward to represent young people in Shetland.
Due to a national issue with the voting site, the election was put on hold back in November but is now set to reopen for young people in Shetland, with voting to take place between Monday 4th and Sunday 17th March.
Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament, known as MSYPs, are aged between 14 and 25, and elected every two years with two MSYPs each for every Scottish Parliament constituency. Across Scotland, young people aged 12 to 25 will be eligible to vote. Young people in Shetland will be able to cast their votes online using their Young Scot National Entitlement Card.
The Shetland Islands constituency will be contested by three candidates:
- Brandon Kennedy
- Joe Smith
- Bertie Summers
Candidate profiles are on this link
The results of voting will be declared on Monday 18th March. Soon after the election, newly elected MSYPs will depart for induction training at the Scottish Youth Parliament in Edinburgh, where they will also meet other successful candidates, including those from Orkney and the Western Isles.
Current MSYPs Michaela Christie and John Fraser were elected unopposed in November 2021 and their two-year term will come to an end when the new MSYPs are elected.
The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) is the democratically elected voice of Scotland’s young people and is a charity registered in Scotland. SYP is grounded in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), particularly Article 12, which lays out young people’s right to be listened to on the issues that affect them, and for their views to be heard.’
Stewart Hornal, Senior Youth Development Worker, who is coordinating the local SYP election, said: “After the earlier delay, I’m pleased to see the SYP elections getting underway next week. Since the youth parliament was set up in 1999, Shetland has always been well represented by young people so that the voices of young islanders are heard across Scotland. I’d encourage young people in Shetland to make sure they cast their votes for their preferred candidates.”
For more details about the Scottish Youth Parliament, please look up: syp.org.uk/about-syp/