The Green Party won a spectacular election today – but many of those taking part were too young to vote in the General Election.
Neale-Wade Academy, March, staged the ‘mock’ election as part of an exercise to encourage young people to get involved in the democratic process.
Assistant principal Claire Howlett said: “We ran the mock election to coincide with the general election and to raise the profile of the importance of democracy as part of our programme to promote British values.”
She said all the students were presented with the educational policies of the five main parties and then asked to vote based on policy rather than personality or party.
“They were not told which policy belonged to which party until after they had voted,” she said.
“We wanted students to focus on the actual substance of politics.
“Students engaged really positively with the whole process and had some mature discussions about the importance of democracy and voting.”
Mrs Howlett said: “The results were very interesting as The Green Party gained the most votes with 320 out of 1009 votes.
“They were followed by UKIP in second, Lib Dems in third, Labour in fourth and Conservatives in last place.”
She added: “As NE Cambs is a safe Conservative seat, these results are very surprising.”
Mrs Howlett said the students “seemed to be attracted by The Green Party’s policy of free education for all at all levels.
“Education is obviously a vital topic for them at this stage of their lives.”
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