Meghalaya is among the states with the highest number of young voters. To connect to them, the Election Department here this time has gone another step forward in innovation.
Multimedia and social media have become a major platform for the department this election to interact with young voters, especially the first-timers (18-19 years) who comprise 4.06 per cent of the total electorate in the state. In most of the other states, voters in the same age group form 1-2 per cent of the total voting population.
The state also has an impressive 32.34 per cent voters between the age of 20 and 29.
The extensive election campaigns for the Lok Sabha polls have a new element, animation. This is besides the numerous awareness graffiti which adorn the walls of the city to inform citizens about the various elements, like EVM and VVPAT, of the electoral process.
The Election Department engaged a group of young artists to work on its idea of the animation, which “involves all the senses and makes the campaign more effective”, feels Chief Electoral Officer Frederick Roy Kharkongor.
“The idea of the animation is mine. We wanted a local element so that youths and other voters can connect easily. So I chose elements for the animation which are quintessential to Meghalaya,” says Kharkongor.
The over two-minute animation clip is made in Khasi and miscellaneous languages (English and other local languages). Meghalaya is the abode of clouds and this element has been aptly used to spread the message of voting.
The video starts with #GoVote written on clouds. The wooden bus, which is a common mode of transport from the city to the rural pockets, has been turned into the Democracy Bus that intends to take all voters on board. The clouds keep coming back with messages like “We decide our future”, “Every vote matters”, “No voter to be left behind” and “If I can, you can”. Among the voters who are waiting for the bus to give them a ride to their polling stations include the young, old and the differently abled.
A creative team comprising a youthful blend of content creators, graphic designers and video editors worked on the animation. This was the first time the artists worked on a project such as this.
The idea was framed and conceptualised over a few days involving storyboarding, aesthetic setting emerging out of a series of brainstorming sessions and ideating with the CEO and going back and forth so that the ideas are firmly consistent with the verticals of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“The team is grateful that the opportunity to create a unique voter awareness animation emerged from the office of the CEO taking the lead in a departure from normal traditional campaigns. Animation engages and connects and the ECI Twitter handle chose to debut on Twitter with the Meghalaya animation on its #Deshkamahatyohar ECISveep handle that garnered 1,000 followers in the first hour of its launch,” say the team members.
The video was shared 200 times in the first three days and reached around 6,000 people. “The voter animation is now playing in our movie halls, also in J2K format and there are 13,000 likes just on the page,” says Kharkongor.
The Khasi song for the animation has been sung by renowned Shillong-based singer Banker Kharkongor.
The Election Department has also used stop motion animation for its awareness campaign. This form of animation is often used in films. It is a technique “in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion when the series of frames is played back as a fast sequence”, explains Wikipedia.
The stop motion animation clip tells voters about their responsibility to go and vote. “Do it for your future. Do it for democracy,” says the voice over.
Besides, the department this time has used social media to a great extent. Kharkongor says this is not only the preferred medium in this technologically advanced time but also a cheaper platform. “Social media is popular among youngsters. It gives direct access (to the target audience), information on social media is readily available and the shelf life of uploaded messages is longer than in any medium,” he explains the positive sides of social media.
Campaign photographs, posters with voter awareness messages, glimpses of musical events and even live streaming of interactive sessions with voters from across the state are being uploaded regularly on the Facebook page of the chief electoral officer, Meghalaya. The Democracy Bus is also featured on the page. Besides the new-age media, the department is continuing with its other modes of campaign like graffiti, road shows, flash mobs and musical events. It is holding campus engagement panel discussions on EVM VVPAT, digitisation of election process powered by Facebook Live and Josh Talks at NEHU with focus on youth involvement.
In 2014, overall voting percentage increased to over 68 from 63 in spite of the HNLC boycott call and this time the department is aiming for a higher percentage.
A 3D installation has been put up at Khyndailad to make the department’s message of free and fair elections loud and clear.
“The approach this time is to engage voters’ attention through multi media as attention span is short and so much is competing for voters’ attention. Also, even illiterate people access and understand WhatsApp videos mixed with easy-to-understand illustration and foot-tapping music and lyrics embedded with electoral messages. In contrast traditional publicity and hoardings with literature do not engage the voter or citizen to the extent desired. Moreover eye catching visuals and videos circulated through social media are shareable and have instant recall value and connect better and resonate more with the intended voter. Besides it’s contemporary and the youth feel it’s more trending. The ideal campaign will also target urban voters who, we have seen, have an apathy towards voting,” Kharkongor elaborates on why the innovation has been necessitated.
~ NM
Photo courtesy: Election Department