Commencement of the Grand Finale of “Shake up the Country” campaign (20th September 2006)

As part of the Grand Finale of “Shake up the Country” campaign, Youth Information Agency B&H (OIA BiH) and local partner organisations in more than 80 cities have been carrying out numerous activities aimed at encouraging young people to vote on 1st October. The GRAND FINALE, scheduled for the period of few days before the elections, is the final stage of this campaign in which hundreds of young motivated activists will try to transfer their determination to vote onto their peers, young people from their town, friends and voters who had so far been showing little interest for participating in the elections.

Throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina activists from OIA and other partner organisations have been announcing and organising INFO PROMOTIONS during which activists are distributing Info brochures on elections and familiarising young people with the elections and the importance of taking part in them. Besides learning new things about the elections, young people participating in these street activities will also get acquainted with the first B&H game I play, I vote, I win!, created by OIA members in order to explain the process of choosing and making decisions, so that the young people could be familiar with it when they get the chance to elect or be elected. Besides the mentioned promotional material, the activists in several different locations will distribute the Info leaflet on the BEST voter! to young people. Namely, all young people between the age of 18 and 30 voting on 1st October will enter the BEST voter! contest. They only need to send an SMS to 061 899091 (3rd October the latest) containing their personal data (name and surname, date and year of birth, the name of their city and polling station) to enter the competition for fantastic trips OIA has organised for in order to further motivate them to vote.

There’s even more to this! In the last week of Sepptember young people will have the chance to participate in another interesting street activity. AUKCIJA (AUCTION), as such, is a unique pre-election event during which several candidates nominated for different government levels will have the chance to publicly present their election campaign programs, measures and projects to young voters, passers-by and interested citizens. Aukcija is an additional challenge as it allows the candidates to directly come into contact with the voters and present themselves in the best way, thus potentially gaining some advantage over other candidates. What does Aukcija offer to young people? Simply, it allows them to get acquainted with the program the candidates and political parties are offering on the basis of which the bidding procedure for the offered programs and candidates can be applied and, in case they haven’t done that yet, decide which candidates will they vote for in the elections!

But that’s still not all! On the day before the elections, when all others will not speak, OIA will be the loudest – it will organise Radio parties, inviting young people to come to a big AFTERPARTY, i.e. the elections. This has as its aim the PRE-ELECTION FEVER on Saturday (30th September) which will contribute the largest number of young voters so far.

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