SHILLONG:
It’s 2023, the most anticipated year of every Shillongite as the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election is right around the corner. When the Election Commission of India landed in the state to announce the election date, the stage was set for political parties to go head-to-head with each for a seat in the new government.
In a bid to create awareness and empower the youth on their right to vote, office of the Chief Election Officer (CEO) along with the Meghalaya Model United Nations (MMUN) curated a two-day programme called Festival of Democracy- #Roadto2023.
The festival according to Frederick Kharkongor, CEO, “is a precursor to the National Voters’ Day and as we know it the elections from roll to poll there’s a celebration of the right of the citizen to vote. The state is going to polls on February 27, and we especially want to urge and call out all the young people as they make up for about 81,443 voters in the state. There are many first-time voters and we hope that this will be a testimony for them to not only come to polling booths to cast votes or choose but to also celebrate their voting rights.”
In an age where democratic literacy is the need of the hour and where political change is a necessity, the Festival of Democracy acts as a bridge between the voters and political candidates whereby revolutionary change comes from a mere act of exercising one’s right to vote. Meshuwa Mawthoh, Project Director of Election Literacy Club (ELC) says:
“Young voters tend to not vote, especially in urban areas. They take it as a burden to vote. So, we decided to call it a festival, to rejoice together and the fact that voting is not something boring but we want people to be excited about it, especially for the young urban people because music connects with people. Games connect with people and that is why we brought the concept of the Festival of Democracy.”
The Festival of Democracy is showcasing live music, games, competitions and food in order to attract people to the political aspects of life and as day one begins, we see, a number of young voters as well as first timers walking hand in hand with one thing in mind, to be able to exercise their franchise in the best possible way in the upcoming election.