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Give Your Vote is a project by the campaigning group Egality that allows people in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ghana to participate in the 2010 UK general election.
Contents
It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 2010 as a campaign for democracy in a world that is increasingly interconnected. Prominent backers include Archbishop Desmond Tutu and actor Keith Allen.
Process
Egality is collecting questions to UK candidates from people in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ghana. These questions are put before UK political parties by volunteers in the UK. Egality also plans to have SMS hubs in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ghana through which questions can be sent in. The answers from the parties will be translated and broadcast in local languages by local TV and Radio and will be published on the internet.
Meanwhile, people registered to vote in the UK can pledge to "give" their vote, thus to act as proxies for people in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ghana.
Five days before the election in the UK, people in the participating countries will be able to vote at a physical ballot box or by sending a text message to a local number. The votes are then proportionately assigned to UK participants, who will receive a text message with voting instructions on the eve of the election. On election day, they are asked to mark the respective party on their ballot paper.
Aims
According to the project website, Give Your Vote aims to show that "the UK makes decisions about climate change, migration, poverty and war that directly affect millions around the world", while there is "no democratic means for those outside the UK to have a say in how these decisions are made."
Reactions
In response to the project, the BNP has called Egality a "Marxist organization" and accused it of being "keen to punish the prosperity of Britain".
The Argentinian newspaper La Nación has written that "the idea of Give Your Vote is simple, attractive and captures the Zeitgeist of the global age to perfection".
Legality
According to the Electoral Commission, there is nothing illegal about the project, as long as nobody is being paid for their vote.