After three weeks of election preparation, Monteagle hosted its first whole school democratic election to elect representatives for the Student Forum. To cater for the 850 Monteagle voters, there were two polling stations set up with four voting booths in each. Eight Monteagle Election officials were on hand to assist with the democratic process. There was great excitement at the polling stations as children got ready to cast their vote. With 42 candidates on the ballot paper, each child had the difficult task of indicating three preferences. Speaking to children on the day, they shared that the election video and hustings guided their voting decision. It was great to see children making an informed vote.
The final vote was cast at 11.35am, which meant all that was left to do was commence the count. The first ballot box was opened for count at 1.05pm and by 2.10pm there were 430 ballot papers counted with 13 spoilt ballot papers. The pressure was on to get all ballots counted by the end of the school day. Officials worked in pairs to count and tally each ballot paper. With over 800 ballot papers and 45 candidates, the officials had an arduous task on there hands. It was a tight vote, with no clear front runner from the offset.
Come 2.50pm, election officials came together to total the tally of the vote. After 42 calculations, we had ten democratically elected forum representatives: Emmanuel Akinnawo, Emmanuela Kwateng, King Kolaur, Jaeola Ekemode, Auguste Krivickaite, Faith Bilo, Bianca Ciobanu, Ileri Silva, Tyler Allen and Emira Mazreku.
The following day, a special assembly was held to congratulate all who bravely put themselves forward for election and to share the newly elected student forum. The student forum will have it’s first meeting the first week after half term to get started on their plans for Monteagle. 
