General election 2015: Powerful video encourages young people 'to have a voice' and register to vote

The one video all young people need to watch before Monday's voter registration deadline

(Anastasia Marshall)

As many in the media gorge themselves on the aftermath of the BBC election debate and consume a smorgasbord of polls and predictions, it is worth remembering that there is still a large number of people who may not participate in the General Election.

The deadline to register to vote is at midnight on 20 April and a new video appealing to the youth vote is encouraging those between 18 and 25 to make sure they are on the electoral register.

The video shows a number of seemingly normal young people going through their everyday struggles: hard at work studying, gazing at expensive out-of-reach properties, walking past the job centre - as well as depicting a homeless youth.

Yet the camera moves closer and reveals each one of these people has their lips stitched shut, symbolising the lack of voice this demographic has had in recent times. Noticeably, the video shows Nick Clegg on a TV screen in the background, perhaps a subtle reference to the Lib Dems' u-turn over tuition fees.

"They want you to feel like they don't have a voice," one of the actors says. "You do."

The video was produced by Anastasia Marshall, a director at Rebel Muse UK, and comes after it was revealed that there has been a sharp drop in registered voters in the UK, including 11,000 vanishing from the electoral roll in marginal constituencies.

The number of registered voters in the UK fell from 46,139,940 at the end of 2013 to 45,325,078 in December, a drop of 1.8 per cent and a lost of over 800,000 people.

The new registration system, which came into force in England and Wales in July and in Scotland in October, means that voters can no longer be registered by the head of a household but can now add their names online.

The change is thought disproportionately to affect young adults living in shared accommodation or with their parents as well as students.

A sharp drop in registered voters could have a crucial impact on who forms the next government, experts warned, after as many as 11,000 vanished from the electoral roll in marginal constituencies.

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