Blog 16 - School elections



If you have been reading my other posts and feeling jealous that I went to an awesome school, you are going to get further jealous! In addition to all the fun extracurricular activities, our school also had elections! Yes, you read that right! We had elections every year to select the School pupil leader or the SPL, assistant SPL (ASPL), the treasurer and the cultural secretary (this was a coveted position that most contestants were after). The ASPL would step in if the SPL was absent or if there were many tasks to do. I think the treasurer managed the funds of the student union. Usually, it was a commerce student that was selected for this post. The cultural secretary, people thought had a fun job, as he/ she was in-charge of the interschool ‘culturals’, where we would go to other schools and vice-versa to participate in various, fiercely battled competitions. But the reality was that the cultural secretary was often running around trying to get everything done while being in the center of various feuds, trying to problem-solve, multi-task and remain sane all at once!

The SPL was the equivalent of a head-boy, a leader and representative of all the students in the school. There was mostly a lot of honor attached to the post and of course, many responsibilities too, including leading the ‘march past’ on sports day, making important speeches in various student events, and bringing the problems faced by students to the notice of the school management. He/she would be the voice of the students and hence had to be chosen by the students. True democracy at work here! 
More than the position itself, I think it was the thrill of participating in the election that motivated students of class XI and XII to contest. The first step would be to file the nomination at the principal’s office, complete with name of his/her party, symbol and even a manifesto! (Promise of a new item in the school canteen or promise of sparring with the management for a school trip out of Chennai for middle-school children, were some of the promises made during my time).

The next step would be to collect supporters (from standards VI -XII), come up with their own slogans and walk around the school corridors during lunch/break-time, shouting, “Vote for (candidate name)!” Or “Vote for (Party symbol)!”.  There were strict rules not to verbally or physically assault the opponent or his/her supporters, but I must say many friendships broke in the election period due to difference in ideologies!
After an intense week of campaigning, where every candidate also got their chance to give their speech (explaining the name of their party, what their symbol stood for, and their manifesto) at the school assembly, the election day would come.

A classroom would be converted into a polling-booth, the entire corridor would be cordoned off and there would be a hushed silence in the area. Our student ID cards would be our voter cards. Senior students/ teachers were stationed as polling officers. There was a stack of papers at the desk of the polling officer. On each paper was printed a table with the list of candidates on the left column, their party symbol in the center column and the right column would be left blank. Each voter would first show their ID to the polling officer, receive a paper with the list of candidates and walk to the ‘Secret ballot’. The secret ballot was a table, that masked from other voters with a giant cardboard sheet that read ‘VOTE HERE”.

Every voter stood behind the cardboard, put a giant ‘X’ mark next to their candidate of choice, folded the paper neatly, moved to a table next to the secret ballot, where there was a closed cardboard box with a slit on top (like a piggy bank), and dropped their vote into it. It would take half a day or more for the entire school to cast their vote (standards XI-XII). Standard V and below were considered ‘minors’ and did not have voting rights yet! 😊

The day after the election would be the most exciting as it would be the day of counting! The counting and announcement of leads would be as dramatic as the real elections in India. Every 30 min or so, they would announce the leads and spontaneous cheers would erupt in all classrooms from the lead’s supporters followed by boos by their opponents! The day would be filled with excitement and finally cheer when the winners were announced!

We would all rush to congratulate the winner at the end of the day, when the winner would give a small acceptance speech and thank people for their trust and votes. The runner-up would also officially concede defeat in his speech!

On the following day, at the school assembly, we would have a solemn swearing-in ceremony, where the SPL, ASPL, the rest of the ‘office-bearers’ would be officially sworn into their new roles. They would then take oath and pledge to do a good job during their term!

#childhoodmemories #90snostalgia #schooldays #schoolelections #democracy #amazingschool #wonderfulteachers

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