Age of candidacy is the minimum age at which a person canlegally hold certain elected government offices. In many cases, it also determines the age at which a person may beeligible to stand for an election or be grantedballot access.
International electoral standards which are defined in the International Public Human Rights Law, allow restricting candidacy on the basis of age. The interpretation of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights offered by the United Nations Human Rights Committee in the General Comment 25 states "Any conditions which apply to the exercise of the rights protected by article 25 (of the ICCPR) should be based on objective and reasonable criteria. For example, it may be reasonable to require a higher age for election or appointment to particular offices than for exercising the right to vote, which should be available to every adult citizen."[1]
The first known example of a law enforcing age of candidacy was theLex Villia Annalis, a Roman law enacted in 180 BCE which set the minimum ages for senatorialmagistrates.[207]
InAustralia a person must be aged 18 or over to stand for election to public office at federal, state or local government level. Prior to 1973, the age of candidacy for the federal parliament was 21.[208]
InAustria, a person must be 18 years of age or older to stand in elections to theEuropean Parliament orNational Council.[16] The Diets of regionalLänder are able to set a minimum age lower than 18 for to be in the polls in elections to the Diet itself as well as to municipal councils in the Land.[210] In presidential elections the candidacy age is 35.
Any Belgian who has reached the age of 18 years can stand for election for theChamber of Representatives, can become a member of theSenate, or can be elected in one of the regional parliaments.[211] This is regulated in theConstitution (Art. 64) and in the Special Law on the Reform of the Institutions.
According to theConstitution of Belize, a person must be at least 18 years old to be elected as a member of theHouse of Representatives and must be at least 30 to be Speaker of the House. A person must be at least 18 years old to be appointed to theSenate and must be at least 30 to be president or Vice-President of the Senate. As only members of the House of Representatives are eligible to be appointed prime minister, thePrime Minister must be at least 18 years old. A person must also be at least 18 years old to be elected to a village council.[28]
TheBrazilian Constitution (Article 14, Section 3 (VI)) defines 35 years as the minimum age for someone to be elected president, Vice-President or Senator; 30 years for state Governor or Vice-Governor; 21 for Federal or State Deputy, Mayor or Vice-Mayor; and 18 for city Council member.[33]
InCanada,the constitution does not outline any age requirements to run for elected office, simply stating "Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of the members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein."[212] However under the currentElections Canada Act to be eligible to run for elected office (municipal, provincial, federal) one must be a minimum of 18 years or older on the day of the election.[213] Prior to 1970, the age requirement was 21 along with the voting age.
To be appointed to theSenate (Upper House), one must be at least 30 years of age and under 75 years of age.[214]
InChile the minimum age required to be electedPresident of the Republic is 35 years on the day of the election. Before the 2005 reforms the requirement was 40 years, and from 1925 to 1981 it was 30 years. Forsenators it is 35 years (between 1981 and 2005 it was 40 years) and fordeputies it is 21 years (between 1925 and 1970 it was 35 years).[217]
InChina the minimum age to be elected as president or vice-president is 45.[218] All citizens who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election.[219]
InCyprus the minimum age to be elected president is 35 years. The minimum age to run for theHouse of Representatives was 25 years until theConstitution was amended in 2019 to lower the limit to 21.[220]
InGermany a citizen must be 18 or overto be elected at the national level, like theChancellor, and this age to be elected at the regional or local level. A person must be 40 or over to bePresident.
InGreece, those aged 25 years old and over who hold Greekcitizenship are eligible to stand and be elected to theHellenic Parliament.[76] All over 40 years old are eligible to stand for presidency.
In Hong Kong a person must be at least 21 to be candidate in a district council or Legislative Council election.[221][222] A person must be at least 40 to be candidate in theChief Executive election, and also at least 40 to be candidate in the election for thePresident of the Legislative Council from among the members of the Legislative Council.[223]
For the office ofPresident, any Icelandic citizen who has reached the age of 35 and fulfills therequirement necessary to vote in elections to theAlthing is eligible to be elected president.[224]
Criticism has been on the rise to decrease the age of candidacy in India. Young India Foundation has been working on a campaign to decrease the age of candidacy in India forMPs andMLAs to better reflect the large young demographic of India.[225]
InItaly, a person must be at least 50 to be President of the Republic, 40 to be aSenator, and 25 to be aDeputy, as specified in the 1947Constitution of Italy. 18 years of age is sufficient, however, to be elected member of the Council of Regions, Provinces, and Municipalities (Communes).
The Iraqi constitution states that a person must be at least 40 years old to run for president[88] and 35 years old to be prime minister.[89] Until 2019, the electoral law set the age limit at 30 years old for candidates to run for the Council of Representatives.[226] However, the new Iraqi Council of Representatives Election Law (passed in 2019, yet to be enacted) lowered the age limit to 28.[227]
25 to be theMember of parliament of theHouse of Representatives with Japanese nationality, to be the Member of metropolitan, prefecture, city, town, or village with valid vote rights, or to be theMayor
In Luxembourg a person must be at least 18-years-old to stand as a candidate to be a member of theChamber of Deputies, the country'sunicameral national legislature.[115]
In Malaysia a citizen shall be over 18 years of age to become a candidate and be elected to theDewan Rakyat andDewan Undangan Negeri, and a person shall be over 30 to be theSenator by constitution.
InMexico, a person must be at least 35 to be president, 25 to be a senator, or 21 to be a Congressional Deputy, as specified in the1917 Constitution of Mexico.
In theNetherlands, any adult 18 years of age or older can become elected in any public election. To be a candidate the person has to reach this age during the time for which the elections are held.
InNigeria, a person must be at least 35 years of age to be electedPresident orVice President, 35 to be a senator, 30 to be a State Governor, and 25 to be a Representative in parliament or Member of the States' House of Assembly.[231]
InNorth Korea, any person eligible to vote in elections to theSupreme People's Assembly is also eligible to stand for candidacy. The age for both voting and candidacy is 17.[232]
InPakistan, a person must be at least 45 years old to bePresident. A person must be at least 25 years old to be a member of the provincial assembly or national assembly.[234]
Section 47, Clause 1 of the 1996 Constitution of South Africa states that "Every citizen who is qualified to vote for the National Assembly is eligible to be a member of the Assembly", defaulting to Section 46 which "provides for a minimum voting age of 18 years" in National Assembly elections; Sections 106 and 105 provide the same for provincial legislatures.
Spain has two legislative chambers of Parliament, a lower house and an upper house. These are theCongress of Deputies (lower house) and theSenate of Spain (upper house) respectively. The minimum age requirement to stand and to be elected to either house is 18 years of age.[175]
InSweden, any citizen at least 18 years old, who resides, or who has resided in the realm can be elected to parliament.[242] Citizens of Sweden, the European Union, Norway or Iceland aged 18 and over may be elected to county or municipal council. Citizens of other countries may also be elected to council, provided they have resided in the realm for at least three years.[243]
In theRepublic of China (commonly known as Taiwan), the minimum age of candidacy is 23, unless otherwise specified in the Constitution or any relevant laws.[244] The Civil Servants Election and Recall Act specifies that candidates for township, city, and indigenous district chiefs must be at least 26, and candidates for municipality, county, and city governors must be at least 30.[245] The minimum age to be elected as president or vice-president is 40.[246]
The14th Dalai Lama was enthroned at the age of 4, and none ofhis predecessors have been enthroned before age 4. The coming of age for the Dalai Lama is 18, when responsibilities are assumed.
The1876 constitution set the age for parliamentary elections as 30. This remained unchanged until 13 October 2006, when it was lowered to 25 through a constitutional amendment. In 2017, it was further lowered to 18, the same as thevoting age.[247] In presidential elections the candidacy age is 40.
In theUnited Kingdom, a person must be aged 18 or over to stand inelections to all parliaments, assemblies, and councils within the UK,devolved, or local level. This age requirement also applies in elections to any individual elective public office; the main example is that of anelected mayor, whether ofLondon or alocal authority. There are no higher age requirements for particular positions in public office. Candidates are required to be aged 18 on both the day of nomination and the day of the poll.[citation needed]
Previously, the requirement was that candidates be 21 years old. During the early 2000s, theBritish Youth Council and other groups successfully campaigned to lower age of candidacy requirements in the United Kingdom.[248] The age of candidacy was reduced from 21 to 18 inEngland,Wales andScotland on 1 January 2007,[249] when section 17 of theElectoral Administration Act 2006 entered into force.[250]
In theUnited States, a person must be aged 35 or over to serve as president. To be a senator, a person must be aged 30 or over. To be a Representative, a person must be aged 25 or older. This is specified in theU.S. Constitution. Most states in the U.S. also have age requirements for the offices of Governor, State Senator, and State Representative.[251] Some states have a minimum age requirement to hold any elected office (usually 21 or 18).
In 1972,Linda Jenness ran for president of the United States as the third-partySocialist Workers Party candidate, although she was 31 at the time.
Manyyouth rights groups view current age of candidacy requirements as unjustifiedage discrimination.[252] Occasionally people who are younger than the minimum age will run for an office in protest of the requirement or because they do not know that the requirement exists. On extremely rare occasions, young people have been elected to offices they do not qualify for and have been deemed ineligible to assume the office.
In 1872,Victoria Woodhull ran for President of the United States, although according to the Constitution she would have been too young to be President if elected.[253]
In 1934,Rush Holt of West Virginia was elected to theSenate of the United States at the age of 29. Since theU.S. Constitution requires senators to be at least 30, Holt was forced to wait until his 30th birthday, six months after the start of the session, before being sworn in.[254]
In 1954,Richard Fulton won election to theTennessee Senate. Shortly after being sworn in, Fulton was ousted from office because he was 27 years old at the time. TheTennessee State Constitution required that senators be at least 30.[255] Rather than hold a new election, the previous incumbent,Clifford Allen, was allowed to resume his office for another term. Fulton went on to win the next State Senate election in 1956 and was later elected to theU.S. House of Representatives where he served for 10 years.
In 1964,Congressman Jed Johnson Jr. of Oklahoma was elected to the89th Congress in the 1964 election while still aged 24 years. However, he becameeligible for the House after turning 25 on his birthday, 27 December 1964, seven days before his swearing in, making him the youngestlegally elected and seated member of the United States Congress ever.[256]
In South Carolina, two Senators aged 24 were elected, but were too young according to the State Constitution: Mike Laughlin in 1969 andBryan Dorn (later a U.S. congressman) in 1941. They were seated anyway.[257]
On several occasions, theSocialist Workers Party (USA) has nominated candidates too young to qualify for the offices they were running for. In 1972,Linda Jenness ran as the SWP presidential candidate, although she was 31 at the time. Since the U.S. Constitution requires that the President and Vice President be at least 35 years old, Jenness was not able to receiveballot access in several states in which she otherwise qualified.[258] Despite this handicap, Jenness still received 83,380 votes.[259] In 2004, the SWP nominatedArrin Hawkins as the party's vice-presidential candidate, although she was 28 at the time. Hawkins was also unable to receive ballot access in several states due to her age.[260]
In the United States, many groups have attempted to lower age of candidacy requirements in various states. In 1994,South Dakota voters rejected a ballot measure that would have lowered the age requirements to serve as a State Senator or State Representative from 25 to 18. In 1998, however, they approved a similarballot measure that reduced the age requirements for those offices from 25 to 21.[261] In 2002,Oregon voters rejected a ballot measure that would have reduced the age requirement to serve as a State Representative from 21 to 18.
^abLaws of Belize, Volume II, Title VIII, Chapter 88, Part III. "Any person shall be eligible to be elected as a member of a council who: is a citizen of Belize; and has ordinarily resided in the village for at least one year immediately preceding the election; and is at least eighteen years old."
^Nohlen, Dieter; Grotz, Florian; Hartmann, Christof (2001).Elections in Asia: A Data Handbook. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. pp. 399–400.ISBN0-19-924959-8.
^Nohlen, Dieter; Grotz, Florian; Hartmann, Christof (2001).Elections in Asia: A Data Handbook. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. pp. 399–400.ISBN0-19-924959-8.
^"How old is old enough?"(PDF) (Press release). British Youth Council. October 2003. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 11 October 2007. Retrieved16 July 2008.BYC believes that at the age of 18 a person may hold elected office. A candidate's breadth of life experience is something that can be evaluated by the electorate... BYC strongly believes that the age of voting should be lowered to 16 and candidacy age should be lowered to 18...
^"BYC Youth Manifesto"(PDF). British Youth Council. 2008. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 6 March 2009. Retrieved28 July 2008.Young people believe that the age to stand as candidates for local, regional, national and European elections should be 16, as should the age to become a trustee of a charity. Young people have significant responsibilities to society at the age of 16 and can have significant responsibilities in the private sector as company directors; this inconsistency should be rectified. Young people have lots to offer and the decision of their appointment to positions of political authority or governance of organisations should be in the hands of the electorate or membership respectfully.
^"Presidency 2004".Politics1.com. Archived fromthe original on 30 July 2007. Retrieved16 October 2007.Since they weren't going to be elected anyways, the Socialist Workers Party didn't care that they nominated a ticket entirely ineligible to be elected. Why? Because Róger Calero is both foreign born and also not a US citizen; and Arrin Hawkins is too young. To avoidballot access problems for the SWP, as the constitutional ineligibility may also render them unable to be listed on the ballot in some states, the 2000 SWP ticket of James Harris for President and Margaret Trowe for Vice President are being used in states that will not permit the Calero-Hawkins slate to be listed.
