PNM Laventille West candidate Kareem Marcelle is calling on young people to exercise their rights on Election Day.
Speaking during a public meeting in La Horquetta on Monday night, he referred to a US-based poll which indicated that, globally, young people between the ages of 18 and 24 years typically refrain from voting.
“It is our duty, it is incumbent upon us to step forward and take responsibility for our country and for our future. Empirical data from the United States and from other countries in the world has shown that between the ages of 18 to 24, young people, that is the lowest voter turnout. And what that says to me is that we are allowing our parents and our grandparents to decide on our future, to decide on who is going to manage our affairs, to decide on what kind of future we want for us.”
The Laventille West candidate cautioned young people against selling their votes.
“Every time you open IG, TikTok or Facebook, you find that our brothers and sisters who we know, who we know what they’re saying, that they don’t believe it in their hearts. We know that they sell out, but we’re not here to judge. We’re not here to judge them, because unless they’re giving you the old $100 bill, take every cent they’re giving you. Take every cent they are giving you because if they feel that influencers, who can even influence you to go a zest or a boat ride, could influence our educated Africans, East Indians, Chinese, Syrian, any youth on this East West Corridor, to vote for them, then I tell them, spend some more money.”