by Cl Alfred Menezes for BISMumbai

Shelter Don Bosco conducted the process of choosing new leaders for its Youth Parliament for the new year over the course of the past week from 9 June to 14 June.

 The process started on 9 June, when the nomination forms for candidates was released by the Chief Election Officer - Br. Alfred Menezes. There were a total of 9 candidates who filled the form and contested the elections. The candidates campaigned using posters and charts during the week. On 13 June, the candidates delivered speeches explaining why they would make good leaders and what changes they would bring about. The elections happened on the next day on 14 June. All the staff and youth of Shelter gathered in the Main Hall at 9 am for the elections. After a short meditation and morning prayers, the election process began. Br. Alfred gave instructions on the election process, explaining the registration process, the online voting process and how to receive the electoral mark. After this, the voting began with Fr. Rudolf, the rector casting the first vote. Over the next hour, a total of 66 voters cast their votes. Since the voting process was online, the results were immediately tabulated. The results were as follows : Aniket Kamble won the election by a big margin with 32 votes and became the new Prime Minister of the Youth Parliament. Following him, Soham Yadav received the second highest number of votes and became the Deputy Prime Minister. The candidates who placed 3rd to 6th in the election formed part of the cabinet, with Parish Sapkale who became the Health Minister, Sumit Jamunabai who became the Sports Minister, Rishikesh Bhadane who became the Education Minister and Soham Yele who became the Cultural Minister.

 The election process was a time of learning valuable lessons in leadership and democracy. The youth gained confidence in public speaking, learnt to take responsibility and understood the process of elections and voting. It helped them to speak for themselves, listen to others and come together to become leaders.