MEDIA RELEASE
3 December, 2003

European Youth set to Lead World in Direct Democracy

The youth voice is set to become a powerful democratic force through a partnership between OBESSU (Organizing Bureau of European School Student Unions) the peak European student body, and the Student Virtual Parliament.

The Student Virtual Parliament is an online polling invention that works like an Opinion Market. Student opinions and issues are harvested online continuously and ranked live in a transparent, competitive voting process. Opinion Market polls work automatically without a pollster, authority or any individual setting the agenda. The power to control the agenda is distributed evenly across all students.

“The partnership means hundreds of thousands of students across Europe will soon feel connected to the democratic process. I believe it’s an opportunity for young people to embrace direct, transparent democracy on a scale that is a world first,” said OBESSU Secretary General, Sinziana Radu.

"As soon as a critical mass of students participate the European student Opinion Market will take on a life of its own, just like a financial market, beyond the control of any individual,” said Student Parliament founder Ralph McKay.  “Direct transparent democracy will be a reality”.

Schools are invited to register at www.studentparliament.net and obtain voting passwords for all students. Students are invited to submit opinions and ideas, in the form of concise statements called “placards”, directly into online voting chambers. There is no waiting to be asked! The placards are ranked live in transparent leaderboards as they compete continuously for votes from students across Europe.”

The result will be a daily ranking of student issues and opinions across the whole of Europe. Yet individual country, region and school voting results can also be seen at a glance.

Students can return any day to vote again without risk of vote stacking. The system automatically filters votes in sample periods to avoid double counting or vote corruption.

“Group opinion is the most powerful force in any society but only when expressed in a credible manner. The sharpest way to measure and express group opinion is through an authentic vote and with the agenda controlled by the rank and file. It does not matter if the vote is unofficial, eventually group opinion always prevails,” said McKay.

180 schools are participating already in Australia, where this international initiative was launched recently by Sydney-based BigPulse.com. Over 25,000 voting passwords have been requested.

Teachers can register their school now for the Student Virtual Parliament at www.studentparliament.net and obtain voting passwords for their students within 24 hours.