The campaign in Pozega opened with a large concert attended by more than 4000 citizens, about 25% of the town’s population.
The POZEGA VOTES! project included a number of activities, some of which were carried out with Forca’s NGO partners in Uzice and Arilje. The first was an essay contest for local high school students of voting age on the subject “Why do I vote?” The three best essays were printed in a bulletin distributed to citizens. Forca printed posters and leaflets and wrote and distributed “Letters for students” (in pink and blue), which encouraged students in a humerous and provocative way to turn out for the elections. Forca recorded and broadcast 10 pre-election videos. There was also a “Pre-election countdown of days,” carried out through videos and a large billboard placed on the central town square on which the number of days remaining until the elections was changed daily. Finally, during the election silence, a period when no campaigning was allowed, POZEGA VOTES! showed Citizen Kane in the local cinema in order to point to the importance of the participation in social and political life and in the elections.
FORCA’s second project, the PRE-ELECTORAL OLYMPICS, targeted younger people. The basic idea was to point at the similarity between the competitive character of the elections and sports. Competitions were held in four different games. The Olympics also had programs intended to encourage audience participation– voting for the best and the best looking sportsman.
As the result of the campaign, there was a
record turnout of 83% in Pozega.