New to voting? Now's your chance to ask the candidates!

Published on 01 October 2020

Whanganui young people are invited to join a Candidates Q&A Facebook Live event on the Whanganui District Council’s Youth Committee Facebook page on Wednesday, 7 October at 7.00pm.

The event will be hosted by local first-time voter Teekay Kawiti and Youth Committee member Chez-Ashli Peter.

Teekay and Chez say the Facebook Live event will be more exciting than getting election information in other ways because “rangatahi can voice their questions and opinions as the Live is on and receive a raw, real-time answer from the representatives.”

The two event hosts say the message they want to get out to young people is that voting is for everyone – “you don’t have to be a councillor or someone with a high level of education to vote”.

“You can be an ordinary teenager who is interested enough to have questions and thoughts about political issues such as the cannabis and euthanasia referenda.”

During the event Teekay and Chez will ask the political candidates questions submitted by young people.

They say there’s two ways for young people to submit questions – either posting questions onto the Youth Committee’s Facebook event listing now or waiting until the night and posting questions live while the event is underway.

Teekay and Chez say they’re looking forward to seeing the questions young people ask.

“We know our youth are engaged with topics at an adult level and are ready to talk and find solutions for everyone‘s concerns so we’re looking forward to an interesting evening.”

 In the meantime, check out the short, informative videos the pair have been involved with making to help educate young people about voting in the general election.