Children's surprise

In Nizhny Novgorod, turnout in parliamentary elections will be increased with the help of schoolchildren

On December 2, Nizhny Novgorod will host not only elections to the State Duma. At the same time, a citywide school referendum “Together into the Future” will be held in the regional center. Moreover, the referendum among students in grades 1–11 of Nizhny Novgorod schools who do not yet have the right to participate in adult elections will be held at the same polling stations as the federal vote. The official goal of the event is to involve young people in public life and develop an active life position among schoolchildren. Unofficial - increasing turnout in parliamentary elections. Although formally the turnout threshold for elections has been abolished by federal legislation.

In the referendum questionnaires, schoolchildren will answer abstract questions that are formally unrelated to adult voting. For example, what needs to be done to make Nizhny Novgorod a comfortable and beautiful place, what problems concern children and youth, and what solutions they propose to solve them, what kind of young people see their city in ten years.

There are 163 secondary schools in Nizhny Novgorod. In each of them, a special polling station will be equipped for children’s voting, and an election commission will be created. Representatives of the high school student council will monitor the voting procedure. Activists of the city school parliament recently distributed more than 100 thousand ballots, certificates confirming participation in voting, badges, as well as protocols for summing up the results of the referendum. All questionnaires with questions are thematically divided into three age groups (for elementary school, middle school and high school students).

According to the head of Nizhny Novgorod, Vadim Bulavinov , the school referendum will help shape the main directions of the city administration’s youth policy, identify key problems that concern schoolchildren, and find ways to solve them. Based on the voting results, a mandate from young Nizhny Novgorod residents to the deputies of the State Duma will be formed.

The children's referendum “Together into the Future” will be held in Nizhny Novgorod for the second time. The idea was tested two years ago during the elections for the head of the city. Then Nizhny Novgorod schoolchildren were invited to speak out on issues of city development within the walls of their native alma mater, which also served as a polling station. The trick was that children, having gone to their referendum, would most likely take their parents to the polling station. At least they received such recommendations from teachers. And at the same time they elected the so-called school city parliament.

The school parliament operates under the patronage of the department of education and social and legal protection of childhood of the city administration . The parliament consists of 25 people - the most active high school students in the districts, elected by the city council of high school students once a year. In parliament there are the positions of chairman and secretary of parliament. On March 6 last year, the administration of Nizhny Novgorod held its first youth self-government day. Together with officials, the city was governed that day by members of Russia’s only city school parliament, created as a result of a referendum. It is curious that the school parliament was headed by... the native daughter of the mayor, Yulia Bulavinova. She spent the whole day leading the city from her father’s chair, along with other representatives of the school parliament.

“Such attempts only need to be encouraged, since in the absence of proper personnel training for young people to work in leadership positions, the event is extremely significant for the city,” Vadim Bulavinov said then. The mayor was convinced that school parliamentarians would subsequently be able to choose a suitable job within the city administration or another management structure. “For them, this is an opportunity to better understand what the adult uncles and aunts who sit in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin do,” explained the mayor.

“Holding a referendum on election day is just one of the rules of the business game in order to bring conditions as close as possible to adult reality,” says Irina Tarasova, director of the city education department. “Agree, it’s great when a child helps increase the political activity of parents.”

Two years ago, the idea justified itself - the turnout in the elections for the head of the city exceeded 70%. Therefore, it was decided to repeat this political technology “trick” in the current elections. Moreover, the questions for the schoolchildren’s referendum have not undergone any significant changes since the mayoral elections. In particular, schoolchildren will again be asked what needs to be changed in the appearance of Nizhny Novgorod and what democracy is.

Each student who took part in the vote will receive a referendum participant badge, a certificate of participation and the text of the Russian anthem. Voting will take place on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Unlike adult elections, the exact results of the children's referendum will be known on the evening of December 2.

Sergey ANTONOV, Nizhny Novgorod