Young voters are being encouraged to attend a meet the mayoral candidates event.

Hosted by the University of Waikato it aims to engage young people in local body elections.

The event is being run by Tauranga youth leaders and also focuses on teaching people about the new single transferable voting system.

Held at the new Tauranga campus the goal is to give candidates a chance to meet the community and share their mayoral plans and visions.

Simon Bridges' 2019 Youth Parliament representative Ben Sokimi is hoping the event will help spark younger people's interest.

'Local body politics is not something many young people are interested in, so hopefully this event will help broaden its appeal.”

'We hope to have as many candidates as we can, to give the youth of Tauranga a good chance to engage with our Mayoral candidates.”

He says often young voters have different views on what's important to them compared to other generations.

'We're looking forward to hearing what candidates have to say about issues pertinent to young people.”

'The issues that young people are interested in are, generally speaking, different to that of the older generations. Issues like climate change are of more concern to our generation as we are the future.”

There will also be an open floor so people get a chance to ask the candidates questions as well.

The event is at 5:30pm September 24 at the Tauranga Campus on Durham Street.