Municipal and local youth councils

On 5 December, Colombia experienced an unprecedented appointment with the ballot box. More than 12 million young people between the ages of 14 and 28 were called to vote to elect the first municipal and local youth councillors in Colombian history.

Eight years after the law approving these councils was passed, these elections were held and, for the first time, grassroots organisations and social movements achieved political-electoral participation in each and every municipality in the country, which is a success in terms of popular representation.

The 2021 Latinobarómetro predicted a low turnout in these elections to Youth Councils due to a generalised feeling among Latin American citizens against the party and representation systems, the decline of politics, the atomisation of movements and the low confidence in the institutions of democracy. This pessimistic scenario did not prevent the National Civil Registry from complying with current regulations to hold elections that, despite a low turnout of 10.4 per cent of the census, left relevant expressions of democratic health in Colombia. Just to mention a few:

• + More than 1.2 million young people turned out to elect their councillors from among the more than 21,000 young people who volunteered to stand for election.
• Young women were in the majority in nominations and were also in the majority (52%) over young men in terms of participation.
• The regions with the highest levels of vulnerability, such as Sucre, Boyacá and Chocó, as a result of years of violence and insecurity of the population living in these territories and municipalities with the highest rates of long-term unemployment in the country (DANE) and the lowest indices of economic capacity (DNP), registered higher voter turnout rates.
• Minors, corresponding to the 14-17 age group, were the most active age group, according to initial estimates based on provisional count data.

With 56.39% of the valid votes, political parties and movements concentrated the majority support of young people for candidacies in all the Departments, with the three parties with the largest number of registered lists, namely the Colombian Liberal Party, the Colombian Conservative Party and the Radical Change Party, obtaining the highest percentage of votes.

With 29.06% of the valid votes, the Independent lists were the second most voted option, including the Unidad Popular "Cali en Resistencia", Medellín nos une and Un pacto por la vida, also from Cali.

With 14.53% of the valid votes, it was the lists of Processes and Organisational Practices that managed to include councillors for the Departmental Youth Network Association of Cauca, Primero País and MovimientoSomos.

It is worth noting that 43.59% of young Colombians wagered the power of representation in the youth councils on formulas other than the traditional political parties, which invites reflection on the role that political parties and movements want to play with young people before the important elections to the Houses of Parliament and the Presidency of the Nation in 2022.

The consequences of these elections on the role that the Youth Councils will really play will be seen in the coming years, and their capacity to transform the local reality will undoubtedly provide interesting lessons that should encourage other Latin American countries to understand and channel youth demands through democratic mechanisms of participation.