Democracy?

It was nearly two years ago that I first heard about the democratic election of the Youth Secretary in Villarrica and the subsequent creation of the Youth Department and Casa de la Juventud in the town to my south. I was intrigued. Everyone in Paraguay talks about the youth, but few actually create projects that benefit the largest sector of the population. Coronel Oviedo had a Youth Secretary when I first arrived, but he was politically appointed and did not do many projects. He ended up quiting within a few months and was never replaced. The position sat vacant and although I heard rumors that the mayor wanted to appoint someone new, he never did, and therefore no new projects were planned.

During the two years I was in Oviedo I occasionally worked with the municipality and had a few contacts there. Together with these contacts I presented the idea to the mayor to reopen the Youth Secretary position as a democratically elected position in order to teach the local youth about civic participation, democracy and leadership. I planned a full day of activities and invited the youth. In May of 2010 we held the Primer Foro Juvenil Parlamentario, in which about 100 youth conducted needs analysis activities and elected three candidates from which the mayor chose one representative to hold the position of Youth Secretary.

Throughout the past year I have worked with the current Youth Secretary and the Youth Parliament to plan and execute various projects and promote civic participation. For the past two months we have been focusing on planning this year's forum. I have left the majority of the planning to the youth, while I serve as more of a guide. The project will only be sustainable if they know how to execute it again in following years.

This year the candidates for secretary had to sign-up early and those who want to vote have to register, like in a real election. There are currently 9 candidates for the position and over 4000 people registered to vote. The topic comes up often on local radio and tv shows and people all over town are talking about it. The participation has far exceeded our expectations.

Unfortunately the growth in participation has also resulted in corruption and dishonesty. I have heard rumors of people being paid to vote for a certain candidate and people sneaking in extra voter registrations past the deadline

One of my major goals with the project is to show the kids that democracy is possible, there can be clean and honest elections. Their generation can bring about change. The first year went really well. This year the politics have changed from small and clean to large and dirty. I hope that we can resolve these problems before the vote on Saturday. I hope that they can see that democracy can bring people to power who actually want to help bring about change.