The Guyana National Youth Council (GNYC) has described its voters’ education campaign for the May 11th general elections as one that was well received by Guyanese.
GNYC Chair Tiffany Daniels reported that even though the ‘Vote Like a Boss’ campaign faced some difficulties in the initial stages, it turned out to be a successful one.
She added that the campaign will be modified and replicated by various youth councils and youth serving entities leading up to all elections in the country.
Daniels said that while there was no statistical data to measure the success of the campaign, based on the trends on social media and informal street reports alone, “It is clear that vote like a boss has caught on tremendously, and means something different to various persons but essentially… we all as Guyanese exercised our franchise and voted.”
In addition to the hashtag #votelikeaboss being a trend on social media, Daniels related that the campaign saw the cooperation of various civil society and advocacy groups, including SASOD, Youth Media Guyana, Youth Advocacy Movement, BlueCAPs, Monique’s Helping Hands, as they shared a common aim, which was to work towards impacting on young people and getting them excited about voting.
“It definitely shows that once youth come together we are a force to be reckoned with, and can create the movements for Guyana that we wish to see,” she added.
Though the campaign was geared to promote youth participation in the recently concluded elections, Daniels explained it was so successful it also managed to reach sections of the older population.
“We touched and inspired many of the adult population. Some of whom we met with were voting for the first time,” she said.
And although elections are over, the GNYC has indicated that it will continue doing work with the hope of reminding Guyanese that they are still ‘bosses’ and that they must hold whichever group that forms the new government accountable.
She further stated “we will be setting up spaces for youth and the general population to interact with the government and political leaders so that we can be more informed and included in governance as that’s how democracies should function.”
GNYC earned another feather in its cap as it also managed to successfully pull off the voters’ education component of the campaign. This saw the organisation being able to successfully execute voters’ fairs in regions 4, 6, 9. The fairs focused on teaching persons, both young and old, how to how to vote,
“People really loved the mock voting that we did, where they were able to vote for their cell phone brand of choice. We would then tabulate and announce the results before the fair was over,” Daniels said.
Additionally, a ‘did you know’ series was shared via social media, which shared a daily fact utilising the Guyana Elections Commission’s voters’ education information found in the phone directory.
Apart from those activities, the GNYC undertook a selfie competition, which received approximately 34 submissions from Guyanese who proudly displayed their inked fingers under two different categories.
Jamal Goodluck, another member of the GNYC highlighted one entry which he believed stood out from the rest. Captioned ‘All Ages,’ the submission showed several inked fingers in a circle with a child in the center looking up. “I think it shows the cross generations that voted and that we need to instill in the younger generation a culture of participation in our democracy in the form of voting and expressing our interest in the political system,” Goodluck said.
The winner of the competition is expected to be decided on in the coming days.
Several persons who were aware of the ‘Vote Like a Boss’ campaign also applauded the efforts of GNYC in raising awareness about voting. One such person, Murtland Haley, commended the GNYC on starting a trend, which he believes drove young persons to go out on vote on Elections Day. “It capitalised on the social media obsession among the younger folks and got the attention of all,” Haley stated.
The young man further said “many young people were undecided and quite frankly didn’t care who won, but with the new trend many realised that their voices matter and their X can really make a difference.”
Orin Phillips, another supporter of the campaign, highlighted that it initially sparked attention of the younger population, but soon after others followed. “Kudos to GNYC for playing such an integral part in the 2015 elections,” Phillips said.
GNYC officially launched the campaign earlier this year and Daniels had urged persons who were present at the launching to see themselves as “pillars of change” for the development of Guyana.
“Your vote counts, each vote counts and is an extension of your passion,” she further said, adding that GNYC was happy to collaborate with the Guyana Elections Commission to educate the masses.
Chairman of the Blue CAPS advocacy group Michael Leonard had also addressed the launch, saying, “We do have the power to install governments and remove them. A lot of politicians on the campaign trails like to say they want to give power back to the people and they want to return to power to the electorate. The only challenge is they can’t return to you what you already have.
“The only way you can exercise that power is by voting. If you like what you see, exercise your power to keep it that way. If you don’t like what you see, exercise your power to change it.”
