How millennials got excited about voting in Meghalaya

Shillong: Rock bands, comic strips, graffiti. The election process in Meghalaya could not get more colourful. The award-winning, record-setting campaign by the state election department left no stone unturned in engaging the youth and ensuring their participation in the festival of democracy.
“We want the youth to see that voting is cool. It is a way for them to have their voices heard. It is a way for them to assert their democratic right. And, finally, it is their duty as citizens,” said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) FR Kharkongor, the man behind it all.

‘Mission Unite’ -- where ‘unite’ is an acronym for ‘You and I Towards Enrolment’ -- was launched in July last year, covering all 11 districts, going all out to draw young voters. And it was a resounding success. “A total of 86,890 first-time voters between the ages of 18 and 19 enrolled this time,” Kharkongor said.

This is the year when those born in 2000 turn 18 and the campaign focussed on these millennials. “We came up with the concept of ‘millennium voting’, that is, the participation of those who were born on January 1, 2000. We have identified 133 such millennium voters. Interestingly, the name of the first millennium voter we identified is Millennium Grace,” the CEO added.

So how did the department send its message across to the youth? “Meghalaya is a music-friendly state. We engaged the rock band Summersalt to encourage people to enrol and vote. The video they came up with went viral,” Kharkongor said. “The song, ‘Tarak Tak Tak’, was among Shillong’s top 10 songs of the year,” he added.

Summersalt vocalist Kit Shangpliang, who wrote the lyrics to the song, said, “The effort to engage the public and the youth with enrolment and voting has been a labour of joy. People vote for money, they vote because candidates attend funerals or give away handouts. We’d like people to be more politically conscious to the extent that they know who they are voting for.”

Besides the rock band, the election department has also roped in Usha Uthup and Garo singer Browny Marak to appeal to the young crowds.

While it’s hard to find political graffiti anywhere in the state, students from Shillong Public School collaborated with local artists to liven up the city with colourful graffiti to create voter awareness. The graffiti features the election department’s mascots Mark and Markor – the male and female avatars of the clouded leopard, Meghalaya’s state animal. The name ‘Mark’ ties up with the election department’s slogan, ‘Let’s get inked,’ and ‘Markor’ means precious.

Extending the idea to rural areas, where putting up hoardings or having wall graffiti is difficult, the department came up with ‘stone graffiti’. In Mawkrykat, for instance, local artists were engaged to paint on rock formations. “Ka hok thep vote ka dei ia baroh (accessible and inclusive election),” a stone graffiti says.

Besides encouraging young citizens to vote, the department has also carried out a sustained campaign to create voter awareness. A novel way in which it reached out to voters was a comic booklet, illustrated by Kamtre Sumer, which follows four young Shillong citizens – Pynskem, John, Khraw and Daphisha – as they find out more about the electoral process.

The campaign’s success has made itself evident not only in the increase in voter participation but also the accolades it has received.

In 2009, the Election Commission started the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) initiative, under which innovative ways are explored to encourage people to participate in the electoral process. Every year, a National Award is handed out to the department with the most creative campaign. This time, it was the Meghalaya election department that made the cut.

Then, in October last year, the department entered the Limca Book of Records with a 120 feet by 75 feet human logo formation by 2,870 students from 113 schools and three colleges. It was the maximum number of enrolled young and future voters coming together to form a human logo in a single venue.