I am confident that Joseph Muscat’s proposal for the voting age to be reduced to 16 will eventually go through but... why only for local elections, I ask?
Could it well be that local elections do not elect governments, perhaps?
I can see Dr Muscat’s vision in going for this positive initiative which can reap rich dividends in the long run. If there is one aspect that is  most attractive in Dr. Muscat’s role as Leader of the MLP it is his age and young voters with little if at all predisposition to Party politics will certainly find him electable. Sixteen-year-olds today are 21-year-olds in five years’ time and by that time fully fledged members of the electorate.
I can see why the Nationalist Party has, so far, remained hesitant in committing itself and the Party-leaning opinionists appear to be ‘dead’ against the idea; in all probability for the reasons mentioned above,  although the MZPN could not do otherwise but show its approval of the idea.
As for the AD, I believe that they could well be the ones who would benefit most from this amendment if they can adopt a fresher approach to their traditional environment friendly policies and remain a political force in five years time.
We live in a society where 16-year-olds are permitted to drink alcohol (get drunk would be closer to the truth if one frequents our traditional recreational arenas) when the overwhelming general consensus, backed by the professional advice of all NGO’s working in the field, was to up the age to 18. Yet, when it comes to voting for the persons who decide what they should or should not do, they remain “children” !
Why ? Immature ? Still children? (According to a columnist in The Malta Independent on Sunday) Don’t know enough about what is good for them? Still developing mentally, emotionally, physically?
Cannot write English properly...? (According to another from The Times.)
Suddenly, all these reasons are being bandied around simply because 16-year-olds are being proposed as adult enough to vote; all of a sudden, we wish to “protect” our children.
Pull the other one !
Like everything else in this country, the REAL reason is… politics!
Our children can play with what they like as long as they don’t play politics!

Anthony R. Girard
Sliema