Project Goal: Electionville is a fictional city in the shape of an educational floor game, where the participants take on the challenging roles of city council members. Equally fun and engaging, the main objective of the Electionville toolkit is to educate participants,  and provide insight into how democracy works.

Project Description: The Electionville floor game is a fun and educative tool developed by the Swedish Institute to explore the fundamental concepts of local democratic processes. Participants become the managers of a city, and act as council members representing fictional parties.  They have a limited set of resources at their disposal, which  they need to agree on how to use within the timespan of one election term.  In order to achieve their set political objectives, and at the same time safeguard public interests, they not only need to use their debate skills to argue for their agenda with the other players, but they also  need to re-evaluate their initial priorities, thus becoming themselves an integral part of the larger democratic process.

Electionville was first introduced in Tirana in 2020 by the Swedish Embassy in Tirana and the Swedish Institute, in cooperation with UN Association Albania, a youth-serving organization, as the local partner. Albania became the first country in the world where the game was piloted outside of Sweden. Following the success of its first edition, and aiming to establish Electionville as an annual tradition for  Albanian youngsters from all over the country, two smaller-scale installments of the game were organized during 2021, in Korça and Lezha. They were intentionally organized outside of the capital with the  goal of increasing the impact of the initiative, as well introducing young Albanians to a non-formal educational tool for engaging with and practicing core democratic values, such as inclusiveness, active participation, gender equality, etc. In 2022, in the framework of “Tirana European Youth Capital 2022”, five installments will be organized in different Albanian cities. For the first time , participants of each edition will not only be locals, but also youngsters  from the Albanian capital, thus bridging gaps between encouraging experience-sharing among peers.

The game is preceded by a training session,  during which participants are instructed on the rules of the game, form political parties, and decide on their political priorities. It is then followed by a moderated group talk on related themes, also known as #DemocracyTalks. After the conclusion of the game, the organizers facilitate a moderated group talk, known as #DemocracyTalks, on related themes. These group discussions  bring together participants, representatives of the municipality or municipal council to reflect on the game proceedings, the overall experience, the challenges faced throughout the game, as well as to compare lessons from the game with  reality.