The fifth edition of the electoral comics is ready to be distributed to primary school children. In this edition, the cartoon hero, hedgehog Arci, has a friend, turtle Besva. They go on vacation together but arrive on island ALAOCS (the reverse version of the word "school"), where they participate as observers in the election day for the Student Council. The children will read about the hedgehog’s new adventure, make drawings, and answer many interesting challenges.

A Council is elected by all school students, and their vote is the first democratic exercise, which is almost similar to the national electoral process. To familiarize the children and make them curios about elections and how a Student Council works, the Centre for Continuous Electoral Training (CCET) has chosen this particular topic for the comics’ new edition.

CCET has launched today, 10 November, the third mobile campaign "Arci's Journey to Elections" within the project "Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections" with the UNDP and USAID support.. This time, Arci’s bus will reach 120 schools from 12 districts of Moldova.

Along with the comics "Arci and Besva Adventures on island ALAOCS", the children will receive:

• Board games from the series "Arci challenge you to play";
• Simplified electoral dictionary;
• Constitution of the Republic of Moldova easy to understand for children;
• Arci’s toy for school libraries and classrooms.

"The fifth edition of the electoral comics continues to spread information that is easy to read and to understand by children. The Student Council is the first democratic structure for which every student can vote or run for. It is important that children prepare for this exercise and become informed voters, even if they are only in school. The mobile campaign will reach 12 new districts not visited by Arci before. We hope that children from these localities will be as enthusiastic and curious as those we have already been to,” says Doina Bordeianu, CCET Director.

Olga Crivoliubic, UNDP Project Manager, noted: “Since last autumn, UNDP, together with its partners, has managed to reach about 30,000 children of different ethnicities from various regions of the country. The COVID-19 pandemic does not allow us to be in direct contact with the children and tell them about democracy in simple and accessible language. Therefore, the mobile campaign is a safe way to spread the information in compliance with all anti-COVID-19 rules. The electoral comics and other informative materials will be very useful for the personal development and moral-spiritual education school subjects and for other interesting activities conducted during the children's leisure time”.

The fourth edition of the electoral vlogging contest has been launched today as well. Children (7 – 14 years) are invited to record a video of up to 3 minutes in which they present creatively and interestingly the information they learned after having read the 5^th edition of the comics "Arci and Besva Adventures on island ALAOCS". The vlog will be uploaded on YouTube or Facebook, on the account of one of the adult family members or even on the school page, using the hashtag #ConcursCICDE. The link shall be sent to info@cicde.md, including the participant’ name, age, school and contact details. The winners will receive an e-book reader, portable speakers, headphones, board games.

The registration deadline for the electoral vlogging contest is 9 December 2021, when the mobile campaign "Arci's Journey to Elections" will end.

UNDP Moldova and its partners have supported the enhancement of electoral processes in Moldova for more than ten years. To read more information about the project’s activities, access: http://undp.md/electoral-support.

NOTE FOR EDITORS

During the mobile campaign, the CCET volunteers will not go inside the schools; they will disseminate the materials at the education institution entrance in compliance with the rules for school access during the COVID-19 pandemic.