Youth Participation in Politics: The PMDC
The Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) has only a slight difference in the setup of its own young generation wing to that of the SLPP, since it was formed by former members of the SLPP.
The young generation of the PMDC was formed immediately after the party was established. The party itself is made up mainly of young people, majority of them breakaway former members of the SLPP.
The breakup was allegedly due to the failure of the SLPP to create the enabling environment for youths to realize their full potentials and contribute meaningfully to the development of society, which stigmatized the party as one for the aged.
To make matters worse, those disgruntled young members of the party were sent aback when the National Party Convention failed to return Mr. Charles Francis Margai as presidential candidate of the party, a position which was given instead to his arch rival, former Vice President Solomon Ekuma Berewa. This naturally added insult to injury.
The PMDC youths believed that the current PMDC Leader was the only candidate among all the contestants in the past Presidential and Parliamentary elections for the Presidential flag who understood their situation and the only person that could have put sanity into the system by given young people a greater say in the affairs of the party, thus the breakaway, which led to the formation of the PMDC.
Meanwhile, the National Young Generation of the PMDC through its established regional bodies makes sure that the party becomes popular within the length and breath of the country.
They played a great role in sensitizing colleagues that they were not only to participate as voters or campaigners, but also to they also to seek the party ticket to contest for Parliamentary seats in the just concluded elections.
They also conducted sensitization and public education programmes for youths by visiting communities in remote areas in the provinces and the Western area.
The Chairman of the National Young Generation of the PMDC and Secretary are representing young people in the Planning Committee of the party which is the highest decision making body in the PMDC, and that shows how sound the relationship is between the young and elderly of the party.
However what irked a lot of youth is that the Movement ended up with the oldest presidential ticket with the combine age of the flag bearer Margai and running mate Tejan Jalloh older than that of any other of the political party that contested the elections.
This probably dampened youth enthusiasm for the movement especially in the western area leading to its not so strong showing as many youths transferred their loyalty and support to the APC with a far more youthful ticket that could better understand their needs, interests and aspirations.