Why are these requirements for election to the House of Representatives so much less restrictive than the requirements for election to the Senate? In the Republic of China (commonly known as Taiwan), the minimum age to run is 23 years, unless otherwise specified in the Constitution or relevant laws. [65] The Law on the Election and Removal of Public Servants stipulates that candidates for municipal, municipal and indigenous district chiefs must be at least 26 years of age and candidates for municipal, district and city governors must be at least 30 years of age. [66] The minimum age to be elected President or Vice-President is 40. [67] In Cyprus, the minimum age to be elected president is 35. The minimum age to run for the House of Representatives was 25 until the Constitution was amended in 2019 to lower the limit to 21. [29] The constitutional requirements to become a senator are somewhat more restrictive than those of the House of Representatives, as the Senate should be a more sublime and consultative body. The Constitution sets out three conditions for the office of Senator, two of which are stricter than those of the House of Representatives: article 47, paragraph 1, of the South African Constitution of 1996 stipulates that “every citizen entitled to vote in the National Assembly shall have the right to be a member of the National Assembly”, article 46 provides for “a minimum voting age of 18 years” for elections to the National Assembly; Clauses 106 and 105 do the same for provincial legislatures. In the United Kingdom, a person must be at least 18 years of age to stand as a candidate for election to all parliaments, assemblies and councils in the United Kingdom, at devolved or local level. This age requirement also applies to elections to individual public elective offices; The most important example is that of an elected mayor, whether it is London or a local authority.
There is no higher age for some positions in the public service. Candidates must be 18 years of age on nomination day and election day. This number was reduced by 21 by the Election Administration Act of 2006. The House of Representatives is the lower house of the U.S. Congress and currently has 435 men and women among its members. Members of the House of Representatives are elected by the people of the voters who live in their home state. Unlike U.S. senators, they do not represent their entire state, but rather some geographic districts of the state known as congressional districts. Members of the House of Representatives can serve an unlimited number of two-year terms, but becoming a member of parliament has specific requirements beyond money, loyal voters, charisma, and perseverance to succeed in a campaign.
The earliest known example of age for law enforcement is the Lex Villia Annalis, a Roman law enacted in 180 BC. J.-C. which established the minimum age for senatorial magistrates. [1] The Irish Constitution of 1937 requires that the President be at least 35 years old and members of the Oireachtas (legislature) 21 years old. [43] [44] Members of the European Parliament for Ireland must also be 21 years old. [44] [45] Members of local authorities must be 18 years old, up from 21 in 1973. [44] [46] The Irish Free State Constitution of 1922-1937 required that TDs (members of the Dáil, House of Commons) be 21,[47] while senators should be 35 (reduced to 30 in 1928). [48] The 2015 Thirty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution proposed lowering the presidential age limit to 21.
[49] However, this proposal was rejected by 73% of voters. In Estonia, any citizen over the age of 18 can be elected in municipal and parliamentary elections from the age of 21. The minimum age for the President of Estonia is 40 years. [31] In the Czech Republic, a person must be at least 18 years old to be elected in municipal elections. A person must be at least 21 years old to be elected to the lower house of the Czech Parliament or the European Parliament and 40 years old to be a member of the upper house (Senate) of the Parliament[30] or the President of the Czech Republic. Many juvenile rights groups consider the current age requirements to be unjustified discrimination on grounds of age. [2] Occasionally, people under the minimum age run for office to protest the requirement or because they are unaware of its existence. In extremely rare cases, young people have been elected to positions for which they did not qualify and have been considered ineligible. Finally, the relevant part of Article II provides that “each Chamber shall decide on the qualifications and elections of its own members”. The constitutional requirements for office have their origins in British law. Members of the House of Commons had to live in the ridings or boroughs they represented, although in practice this was rarely the case.
The founders used this example to justify the requirement that members of the house must live in the state they represent. It would increase the likelihood that they would know the interests of the people there, but during the debates, there was no talk of living in the same district. The district system emerged later, when states were concerned with how to fairly organize their delegations to Congress. James Madison reiterated the constitutional requirements for eligibility for a seat in Congress. Article 1 of the Constitution establishes the powers and responsibilities of Congress. Section 2, clause 2 of Article 1 describes three simple requirements for serving as a Member of Parliament: Theoretically, a person only needs to meet the requirements of the Constitution to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and become a member of Congress or Congressman. In practice, however, MEPs tend to adjust profiles that, although lacking qualifications, certainly contribute to winning a seat as legislators. If 25 sounds young, consider that the founders first set the minimum age for service in the House of Representatives at 21, which is the voting age.
However, at the constitutional convention, Virginia Delegate George Mason set the age at 25. Mason argued that some should alternate between the freedom to manage their own affairs and the administration of the “affairs of a great nation.” Despite the objection of Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson, Mason`s amendment passed by a vote of seven to three. The founders initially set 21, the voting age, as the minimum age to serve in the House of Representatives. During the Federal Constitutional Convention, George Mason moved from Virginia to reach the age of 25. Mason said there should be a time between the freedom to manage one`s own affairs and the administration of “the affairs of a great nation.” Convention delegate James Wilson of Pennsylvania rejected the proposal to further restrict membership in the House of Representatives, citing the ministry of William Pitt as a counterexample. Pitt, who was in office at the time of the Convention, was the youngest prime minister in British history at 24. Yet Mason`s amendment passed by a vote of seven to three. In the United States, a person must be at least 35 years old to serve as president. To become a senator, you must be at least 30 years old. To become a representative, a person must be at least 25 years old. This is stipulated in the Constitution of the United States.
Most states in the United States also have age requirements for governor, state senator, and state representative. [69] Some states have a minimum age for elective office (usually 21 or 18). In New Zealand, the minimum age for the office of Prime Minister of New Zealand is 18. Citizens and permanent residents registered as electors may run for election as Members of Parliament. [ref. needed] Spain has two legislative chambers of parliament, a lower house and an upper house. These are the Congress of Deputies (lower house) and the Senate of Spain (upper house). The minimum age to stand as a candidate and be elected to one of the two chambers is 18 years. [62] In the United States, many groups have attempted to lower age requirements for reporting to different states. In 1994, South Dakota voters rejected an election measure that would have lowered the age to serve as a senator or state representative from 25 to 18. In 1998, however, they agreed to a similar electoral measure that lowered the age requirement for these positions from 25 to 21.
[10] In 2002, Oregon voters rejected an election measure that would have lowered the age limit for state officials from 21 to 18. No other requirement is laid down in Article I(2) of the Constitution. However, all members must take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States before they can perform the duties of the office. In Chile, the minimum age for election to the Presidency of the Republic is 35 years on election day. Before the 2005 reforms, the requirement was 40 years, from 1925 to 1981, 30 years. For senators, it is 35 years (between 1981 and 2005, it was 40 years) and for representatives, it is 21 years (between 1925 and 1970, it was 35 years). [26] Clearly, there is much more to being elected than meeting the minimum requirements. While there are many ways to win a seat in Congress, these proposals can help achieve that goal. In the early 2000s, the British Youth Council and other groups successfully lobbied to lower the age for running in the UK. [11] The age of candidacy was lowered from 21 to 18 in England, Wales and Scotland on 1 January 2007,[12] when section 17 of the Election Administration Act 2006 came into force.
[13] The requirements to be a representative in Congress are simple. You must be at least 25 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and live in the state you want to represent. To create the service requirements in the House of Representatives, the founders relied freely on British law, which at the time required members of the British House of Commons to live in the villages and towns they represented.