The Degree of Young People’s Knowledge of the new Election Law (4/2022) and its Relationship to their Attitudes towards Political Participation

Abstract

     The study aims to measure the degree of knowledge of young people about the new election law (No. 4 of 2022) and its relationship to their attitudes towards political participation, and whether the degree of knowledge and attitudes differ according to the variables: gender, age, academic qualification, social status, region and party affiliation. To achieve these goals, a multiple-choice test was designed on the new electoral law (20224/) and the measure of the attitude towards political participation. After verifying the validity and reliability of the two tools, they were distributed to the available sample through an electronic link, and the number of respondents was (267) young men and women. The results showed that the degree of knowledge of the new election law is weak (41%) and that there are statistically significant differences according to gender in favour of males, academic qualifications in favour of the higher qualification, the region in favour of the middle region, and party affiliation in favour of the party members.

     The results also suggest that youths' attitudes towards political participation are medium (3.59 out of 5), i.e., a percentage of (72%) and that there are statistically significant differences in the attitude of youths towards political participation according to the age variable in favour of the age group (23-27), the region variable in favour of the Northern Region, and the party affiliation variable in favour of the party members. The study concluded that there is no correlation between the degree of knowledge of political reforms and attitudes towards political participation. In light of the results, the study made several recommendations, most notably: increasing knowledge and awareness of the recent political reforms through universities, parties, and civil society institutions.