Y VOTE MOCK ELECTIONS

There were many stages in the election process: the nominations, selection of candidates, voter registrations, the candidate speeches and voting etc.

Before the actual mock elections began, all students did their own research on EU elections. The aim was to learn as much about the real elections, parties and the candidate as possible. Researching about the real elections was a big help.

While everyone brushed up on their knowledge about the European Elections, four candidates chose their parties. Each candidate and her group represented a political party. There were the Labour party, Green party, Liberal Democrats and finally the Conservatives party in our school. All four candidates prepared manifestos, posters and various other things to convince everyone to vote for them. Canvassing for potential voters was done by the candidates during break and lunch times and during the citizenship hour.

Each candidate then read out her speech to the rest of the school during the husting events. The various manifestoes talked about a variety of subjects. All of the candidates spoke about what they would do to improve things in the world, e.g. dangers such as murder and global warming etc. Furthermore they spoke of how they had helped us in the past and also about what plans they had for the future. The rest of the school then decided on who they wanted to vote for.

When the 4th June arrived each pupil queued up outside one of the classrooms which was the make shift polling station. We were each given a poll card to choose our favourite candidate. When we had made our choices, we put the paper inside a box and left the classroom, anxious to know who would win. The votes were counted by the student councillors who were the counting clerks. The results were announced by the reporting officer who was Mrs Dambatta. We later found out that it was the Labour Party who had won.

The lucky candidate and her party had won themselves a chance to meet the Local Labour MP in Leeds. All of year ten pupils were also told they would be visiting the MP’s office where the winner would have a private audience with Fabian Hamilton!

In conclusion I think the election was great. Each individual got to choose their favourite candidate/party and in addition everyone became more knowledgeable of the Euro Elections in particular and elections in general. I don’t really think that the mock elections will change anyone’s opinion on whether they would vote or not in the future, but the fact that they had attended a mock election means that things would be a lot more clearer to them in the future when they actually come to vote in a real election.

Written by Zahida Ali, Yr9