Ask almost any adult why young people don’t vote…
And you’ll probably hear the same answer.
« They’re not interested in politics anymore. »
« They don’t care. »
« They only think about TikTok. »
It’s a sentence we’ve all heard.
The problem?
The data tells a very different story.
A recent survey conducted by the Moroccan collective Les Citoyens, involving 3,000 young people aged 18 to 35, reveals something surprising.
Eighty-seven percent of them say they regularly talk about politics.
Read that again.
Nearly 9 out of 10.
That doesn’t sound like a generation that’s disconnected.
It sounds like a generation that’s paying attention.
But here’s where the story changes.
While 87% discuss politics…
84% say they have no connection whatsoever with a political party.
That’s an extraordinary gap.
Young people haven’t abandoned political issues.
They’ve abandoned the traditional structures built around them.
Think about how previous generations experienced politics.
Political party meetings.
Television debates.
Campaign posters.
Newspapers.
Today?
Politics happens somewhere else.
On Instagram.
TikTok.
X.
Podcasts.
Discord servers.
WhatsApp groups.
YouTube.
A political speech no longer competes with another politician.
It competes with millions of videos fighting for your attention.
And maybe that’s why political engagement looks so different.
Young people aren’t necessarily less interested.
They’re simply participating in different spaces.
Then comes another number that should make everyone pause.
According to the available figures…
Around 7.7 million Moroccans who are eligible to vote aren’t even registered on the electoral rolls.
Seven point seven million.
That’s not a small administrative issue.
That’s millions of voices that can’t influence the result…
Even if they wanted to.
Because before asking,
« Why don’t young people vote? »
There’s another question worth asking.
« How many are actually able to vote? »
Registration is the first step.
Without it…
Election day changes nothing.
Now here’s something important.
Not voting doesn’t always mean the same thing.
For some people…
It’s indifference.
For others…
It’s disappointment.
For others…
It’s the feeling that no political party truly represents them.
Those are very different realities.
And confusing them leads to the wrong conclusions.
Maybe the biggest mistake is imagining politics only begins on election day.
Because politics also happens when people debate housing prices.
Talk about education.
Healthcare.
Jobs.
Public transport.
Purchasing power.
Those conversations are political too.
Even if they never happen inside a political party headquarters.
That’s why many analysts believe the real challenge isn’t convincing young people to care.
It’s convincing political institutions to meet young people where they already are.
Because today’s generation hasn’t stopped having opinions.
It has simply stopped expressing them through yesterday’s channels.
And maybe that’s the biggest political transformation of the digital age.
The question is no longer,
« Are young people interested? »
The question is…
« Who is still speaking their language? »
The real question is…
If an entire generation talks about politics every day but stays away from political parties… is the problem young people… or the way politics is still being presented to them? 🗳️🇲🇦
