Bishkek, Aug. 27, 2020 / Kabar /. Today the Central Election Commission (CEC) and UNDP awarded winners of the “Youth Laboratory Competition Vote // Shaila”, which was organized to encourage youth to combat vote buying in the upcoming parliamentary elections and raise their awareness on importance of electoral integrity, secrecy of the vote and youth participation in elections, UNDP in the Kyrgyz Republic reported.
"29% of voters in Kyrgyzstan are citizens under the age of 30 year. Therefore, the fact that young people take an active position and understand the responsibility for the choices they make contributes to the transparency, openness, and credibility of elections. In its turn, the CEC consistently removes the basis for corruption at the level of electoral process management, " Chair of the CEC Ms. Shaildabekova said. The head of the CEC pointed out the importance of the active involvement of youth with a sense of civic responsibility in the democratization of the electoral process.
The youth idea contest was held from 13 July to 25 August 2020 with the support of the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of The Federal Republic of Germany. More than 44 selected contestants between the ages of 18 and 35took part in the two-day online training of Youth Laboratory. Each participant chose the related subjects: “Why is it important to vote?” “Why does vote-buying result inbad influences?” “What is the meaning of "abuse of state resources?" and “Why is it important to keep ballots secret?”, etc.
“The idea of competition is amazing. It was so unusual and exciting that we are all sodifferent but gathered under one idea and one slogan. This experience impacts myawareness and I learned so much about elections and the electoral process,” shared Asel Ashyralieva, one of the participants of the “Youth Laboratory”.
The Laboratory was developed to provide the participants with all the needed informationabout the elections and taught them new skills which could be beneficial in creatingand promoting the project. As a result of the brainstorming and learning, participantspublished their media products on social media, which reached 1,017,025 people.
“Young people are the future of thiscountry and the law clearly states voters are free to decide on their leadership. The purpose of the campaign is to encourageyoung people topledge to not sell their votes. Young and older voters should feel safe to come to the elections without fear of repression by those who use unlawful approaches to manipulate voters. We are glad to support the CEC in protecting thesecrecy of the ballot, and to enable all voters to freely choose the leaders theybelieve in”, said UNDP Resident Representative Ms. Louise Chamberlain.