Electionville

The Embassy of Sweden in Nairobi first organised, together with the Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD), for Electionville to be played at the People’s Democracy Festival in 2022. It has since been played by and with Nairobits youth and will this year be played again at the People’s Democracy Festival and later at Europe Day 2023.

What is local governance? What really constitutes a democratic process? And who does it serve? The Electionville floor game is an educative tool to explore the fundamental concepts of local democratic processes. The participants will become the managers of a city and act as council members representing fictional parties. At their disposal, they have a limited set of resources that they need to agree on how to use, within the timespan of one
election term.

In order to achieve their set political objectives while at the same time safeguarding public interests, they not only need to use their debate skills with the competing players, but also come to re-evaluate their initial priorities, thus becoming themselves an integral part of the larger
democratic process.

The game takes 90–120 minutes and can be played with 3–6 players or in larger teams where every party in the game consists of more than one person. The game consists of a set number of rounds, with each round consisting of one turn for each player (or team of players).

For this game, one person will be present as a game master and guides the players through the game. The primary target group is people aged 15–24. Relevant target groups also include teachers, and opinion-makers.

About this material

Originally designed as a boardgame by the Swedish content bureau Fabel and commissioned by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, Electionville has been produced in over 13,000 copies, reaching more than half of the primary and upper secondary schools in Sweden. It is now distributed by The Swedish Institute (SI), a public agency that encourages interest and confidence in Sweden around the world and operates in the fields of culture, education, science and business in seeking to strengthen ties and promote development.

Link with video of game: Welcome to Electionville – now as online game! – Sharing Sweden

Player instructions – script read to players

Welcome! This is a game of local politics in the fictional city of Electionville in our country. You will all be playing city council members, each representing a party. During the game you will make hard choices on how our joint resources are used and distributed. This council will work for three/four/five (select one) years, represented by as many rounds in the game.

The party that succeeds in allocating most resources to it’s prioritised political areas will win the game. Furthermore, depending on how well you all together have prioritised the core political areas for the city, you will get a rating on how well you succeeded in ruling the city.