Summer Camp elections committee, voters' list, exhibition and challenge, candidates, elections campaign, polling and counting and voters' ink, all these preparations weren’t for new presidential or legislative elections in Palestine but rather a new method in voter education to increase the awareness of the participants in the west Bank summer camps in the age categories between twelve and seventeen years through the " 2007 youth leadership elections in the summer camps project".
This project came as part of the CEC's role in elections education and as part of its belief in the importance of democratic participation on the national level through awareness activities that should cover all social categories in the Palestinian society. To this end, the CEC constantly seeks to improve this role by developing the content and methods of its educational campaigns. As a result, the CEC developed a project called the 2007 youth leadership elections in the summer camps in cooperation with the National Committee for summer camps and other local bodies and institutions. The project was implemented in twenty two summer camps in all West Bank governorates (two camps in each governorate). The project targeted both male and female participants in the age categories between twelve and seventeen years.
The project aimed at enhancing the concept of democratic participation and increasing elections awareness among the targeted group which represents the largest group in the Palestinian society as the statistics of the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics indicate that around 52 % of the Palestinian society are under eighteen years which highlights the importance of giving more attention to this category by increasing their awareness in the field of democracy.
The most important thing that distinguished this project from other projects is that it stepped away from the traditional methods usually applied in the awareness and educational campaigns such as lecturing and concentrated on the actual simulation of the electoral process by conducting mock elections and by activating the role of participants so that they become part of the process itself instead of just being recipients. To achieve this purpose, the CEC issued a comprehensive and easy to understand brochure and distributed it on the summer campers.
Although this project was implemented under the supervision and directives of the CEC through its various offices, the participants in the targeted summer camps played the main role in the implementation process. Participants formed a special elections committee in each camp under the name " The camp elections commission" which undertook the responsibility of administering and monitoring all phases of the mock elections such as voters registration (for the camp participants), exhibition and challenge, nomination, elections campaigning, polling, counting and the announcement of the results, which made it seem like a real elections commission.
Through the process of supervising and training the CEC staff in the summer camps noticed the extent of the students' interest in the project and the great level of interaction with they demonstrated which was most noticeable during the campaigning process. The schools and institutions premises where mock elections where held were filled with slogans and banners which called for electing a certain candidate. In their elections campaigns, candidates raised slogans that demanded child protection and giving them their rights and providing free education for all. It was noticed that candidates stepped away from political issues and focused in their platforms on the daily issues their generation face. Some candidates went even far a way from that by making alliances with other candidates in the hope this would win them more votes.
On the other hand and in the polling day, students showed even more interaction and excitement. Participants raised their fingers to show the voter's ink on them which indicate their participation in the polling process while others looked nervous while waiting to hear their names during the counting process. Other participants protested because they weren’t eligible to participate in the nomination and polling process because the mock elections contained serious procedures and restrictions. Participants weren’t allowed for nomination or to vote unless they are included in a special voter's list. Participants under twelve years were ineligible for registration and the minimum age for nomination was thirteen years. The winners in the mock elections dealt with their victory seriously. Upon the announcement of the names of the winners, participants carried the winners on their shoulders, some distributed candies and others made further promises to their supporters to achieve what they promised them in their electoral platforms.
At the end of each camp, indicators and results spoke for themselves and confirmed the success and importance of this educational project to this generation in particular which indicates the importance of such project and calls for the concerned official and non official bodies to support this project to be further implemented in institutions bigger than the summer camps. The CEC and the Ministry of Education as well as other NGOs interested in democracy are the main bodies responsible for enhancing the values and concepts of democratic life because the concept of democracy goes beyond a ballot box, it is a culture and values that should be a methodology for individuals and groups in each society, institution, street, family and school.