Election Fever

With the general election on the horizon, pupils at King Edward’s School, Bath held their own mock election, entitled KESelect 2010, on Wednesday 24^th March.

Pupils represented the main political parties; Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats, as well as a number of ‘fringe’ political parties, including; the Green Party, People’s Party of KES, SPQR and the L.A.D party.

Head of History and Politics, Rebecca Davies commented: “The purpose of the mock elections was to give pupils the opportunity to explore the political process. With the general elections coming up soon it is important that young people develop their understanding of how the democratic process works, and become aware of the issues being debated. It also gives students the opportunity to state their views on local issues.”

All parties were registered and had official party members, representing every year group within the senior school community, signed up. Politics students from Year 12 co-ordinated the campaign on behalf of the three main parties. Each party canvassed pupils, put together a party political film, which was broadcast at the hustings, and developed a party manifesto.

Rebecca Davies added: “We were very pleased with the way KESelect 2010 went, mirroring the excitement of a real election. By experiencing their own mock election we were able to encourage our young people to become engaged in the political process. It is important to the future health of our democracy that young people become involved, especially given the low number of young people that are registered to vote."