The New Zealand Supreme Court ruled that the voting age should be lowered to 16

New Zealand’s High Court has upheld an appeal seeking to lower the voting age to 16. They argue that the rule barring 16 and 17-year-olds from voting is discriminatory on the basis of age.

The decision establishes the minimum voting age of 18s was not justified as a reasonable limitation on the suffrage of the people.

The ‘Make It 16’ group has argued that the 18-year voting age is a violation of human rights, and as such, their aim is to bring the issue to Parliament for a special debate.

With sentencing this Monday, Judges Ellen France and O’Regan handed down the verdict The earlier judgment of the Court of Appeals dismissing the ‘Make It 16’ case should be overturned.

Caden Tipler, the initiative’s co-director, described the Supreme Court’s ruling as a “historic” fact that indicates they hope the law will change.

“Parliament has a formal process to review a declaration of conflict, and we’re very confident that once Parliament reviews this decision, (lawmakers) will see that lowering the voting age is the right thing to do,” Tipler said.

“Although we are celebrating, we still have a lot to do,” the activist admitted in statements collected by the ‘NZ Herald’ newspaper.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday’s ruling by the Supreme Court does not mean Parliament is obliged to change the law.

“The cabinet discussed the post-conviction process and decided to frame a law for Parliament to lower the voting age to 16.” Ardern explained before agreeing that the law would not be in place for the next elections.

For his part, The prime minister has personally supported lowering the age, but qualified that a 75 percent unanimity is needed in the lower house. “I think we should remove politics and allow every member of parliament to have their say,” he said.