Every year, by the end of September, the vigorous war between the student candidates for class president and vice president begins: walls of school corridors fill up with eye-catching posters of various candidates with “vote for me”signs, the candidates try to win the hearts of voters through promises (often quite unrealistic) and cookies, and the preparations for speeches start soon after.
This year was no different from the traditional election process- it was even more intense since these were the first elections post-covid. Surprisingly, freshmen outdid every other class by the number of candidates, however many decided at the last minute to withdraw their attempts.
In the beginning, voters had to choose from six candidates, but only four with the most votes got to perform their speeches: Nini Shatberashvili, Rusaso Tsulaia, Sandro Kakabadze, and Demetre Tskhadadze. Unfortunately, Demetre Tskadadze could not attend school due to covid, but his substitute speaker Sandro Mrevlishvili presented his speech with much ambition. The voters were very involved during the speeches, asking engaging questions and applauding enthusiastically. According to them, all of the speeches were well executed, since the candidates were very confident and well-spoken. However, some complained that they had trouble hearing some speeches due to the acoustics of the gymnasium. The speeches took an unexpected turn when Nini and Sandro had “a cross-examination” and asked each other incisive questions about their future plans. It was clear that these two were the crowd favorites, their competitive dynamic putting them in the spotlight.
As expected, these two were the ones who won the elections: Nini, with her passionate and confident speech, got crowned as class president and with his driven ideas, Demetre took the vice president role. Though Rusaso and Sandro did not win, they were both excellent speakers. It is important to note that this was Rusaso’s second year running for class president, which requires a lot of courage and determination.
We were curious to know how the freshmen felt this years’ elections differed from the one held online last year, so we sent out a survey asking for their opinions. We received 24 responses in total and here are some of them:
“It was a lot easier to choose a president because we could listen to them in real life and ask some questions”, says one of the students. Others agree and say that “this year was better because in real life you can clearly see the candidate's potential during their speech” and that “audience reactions made it funny and entertaining to watch.” One 9th grader also states that “listening to the speakers speak in real life was completely different, as the speeches were far more gripping and interesting.“ Evidently, the school atmosphere created a more enjoyable experience for the students. We hope we will never have to go back to zoom and its boring aspects:)
Now that Nini and Demetre are the president and the vice president respectively, it will be interesting to observe how these two “opposing candidates” and now partners will collaborate their ideas for the year to come. We wish them the best of luck!
Edited by Barbare Melikidze