Students' Council Elections in the Junior Class

Article by Lizi Schierman and Nino Ioseliani 

Edited by Kato Ambokadze

Source GZAAT Gazette 

For years GZAAT has had the tradition of electing class presidents and vice presidents for each of the grades. The class president has many functions, one of the main ones being to act as a bridge between the students and the school administration. Additionally, the class presidents often plan fun activities that unite the class. Every year, students in the class express their interest in becoming class presidents of their grade and then start their campaigns. Usually, the students advertise themselves to their classmates and use different methods to do so. After announcing the candidates, the speeches and elections take place. First, each candidate gives a speech, explaining why they would make a good president and what they have to offer. Once the contenders have spoken, students start voting for their favourite candidate. Finally, the president and vice president are chosen based on the majority of votes and join the school council.

This year's presidential elections for each grade took place on Friday, September 30th. It was an important week for everyone, especially the Juniors since the competition for the title of president was quite intense. There were three candidates: Andria Khundadze, Nita Dvali, and Ilia Dzneladze. As their classmates have said, all of the students are pretty competent and popular candidates in the class. They have all been very creative with their ad campaigns by hanging unique posters all over the school walls. In addition, Mariana Chochia, one of the juniors, has noted that Nita made fun patches to give out to people, and Andria used funny phrases to advertise his campaign. He even gave out chocolates and sweets to people, ensuring they knew who to vote for. Mariana says that all three candidates were very determined to win. Luka Shalikadze, another Junior, pointed out that the candidates worked hard and 'pushed themselves to their limits.' He added that the advertisements this year were much more creative than last year. Due to the covid restrictions in the past years, the campaigns have been very limited, so this year the students got very handy. 

Ana Gvasalia, on the other hand, says that the ad campaigns have been quite similar every year. She says that this is to be expected, because they're all each other's classmates and therefore usually have similar ideas for such projects. Even so, based on what people have said, it is evident that the candidates put a lot of effort into their ad campaigns. It was a very close competition. Mariana tells us that her classmates were divided based on their preferred candidates. Luka says that "friendships have been broken" because of these presidential elections. On the other hand, Mea Zakharovi, a new student at GZAAT, thinks these elections are fun and exciting, saying that she's never had anything like this at her old school. She says that all of the candidates were very creative, especially Andria, and even though they all seem outstanding and competent candidates, she has her favorites. Mea says that she thinks the elections are "really fair and not biased at all.", but she herself was rooting for Andria.

Another student expressed different opinions, saying that Ilia or Nita are probably the best candidates. They said that many people think that Ilia would make an excellent president, but since he is relatively new and has been here for only a year, Nita is probably the more competent candidate since she has dedicated more to the class throughout the years. Besides this, the Junior says that ‘of course the elections are biased, I mean, come on! People are going to vote for their close friends so as to not make them upset. They don’t understand that they have to put their personal feelings aside while voting, and this is probably something that can’t really be changed.’ Mariana agrees, saying that the one with the most friends will usually win. This year though, she says that all of the candidates are pretty popular among the class, and so it will all come down to who has the best speech. 

All three candidates were interviewed before the speeches took place regarding their feelings and predictions regarding this year's elections. Nita Dvali, one of the candidates, told us that the chances of her winning this election were huge as, throughout the past three years, she has proven that she can accomplish many things, even though she hasn't been an official president yet. Therefore, she said she felt very confident and believed she could win this year's elections. When she was asked about the other candidates' campaigns and her thoughts about them, she pointed out that she liked Andria's a lot, especially the posters he hung on the walls. However, she added that she disliked that Ilia repeated one of the posters of the last year's candidates, demonstrating his lack of imagination and creativity. Nevertheless, she predicted that she and Andria would be chosen for president and vice-president and that she'd be glad to work with him this year. 

The next candidate who was interviewed was Ilia Dzneladze. According to him, his chances of winning the elections were pretty big based on his exit polls. When he was asked about the other candidates' campaigns and his thoughts about them, he said that he liked both Nita's and Andria's. Ilia pointed out that Andria missed two to three days and couldn't do as well. Still, he believed that the other candidates were still very promising, and it wouldn't be easy for any of them to win this year's elections. However, he thought optimistically as he was very confident and hoped that he and Andria would be the president and the vice-president. 

Last but not least, Andria Khundadze was interviewed as well. As he told the interviewer, he was very confident in himself and his campaign, just like the other candidates. However, he was unsure who'd win the elections as he believed that all of them were going well. He was a little nervous about how the speeches would go, but he thought everything would be fine. When it comes to the campaigns, he talked about them in more detail. He said he liked both Nita's and Ilia's a lot. Still, he didn't like that Ilia repeated the last year's candidate's poster idea, which indicated his unprofessionalism. Still, he didn't have an exact answer regarding who'd win the elections and wished all the best to every candidate. 

Finally, everything came down to their speeches. All three candidates performed very well and demonstrated promising qualities. They all promised the Juniors to improve the food and prices in the cafeteria, to hear everyone’s problems and ideas, try their best to find solutions, make more sports competitions and tournaments, and plan parties on Halloween, Christmas, and the annual class trip to Kachreti. However, there were a few unique things that each of the candidates offered. For example, Nita promised the class to try her best and add foreign language classes. She also promised the Juniors a homecoming party to give the class more “American high school” experience. On the other hand, Andria promised the class to put maximum effort into AAT days as it will be Junior’s first AAT day. He also offered students an opportunity to plan school trips and decide what new places to explore together. Lastly, Ilia promised the class to make and plan charities to help people in need and told the class that with little motivation, they were able to do everything. 

After the speeches, Juniors returned to their advisories and were asked to cast their votes. After all the “broken friendships” and merciless battle between the friends, the two candidates were chosen to represent their class: Nita Dvali as the president and Andria Khundadze as the vice-president! Despite the results, it’s obvious that all the candidates put a lot of effort into their campaigns and did what they could to win the voices of their classmates. Let’s wish the best of luck to the Junior representatives and have no doubt in their excellent performance in the school council.