Set up and Components

Introduction:

In ‘The Poll’ players take control of the affairs of a political party: manages their finances, their policy stand and decide which seats to contest in the run-up to the General Election. Each player must draft an all-inclusive manifesto to fight for constituencies all over the country, make promises through arguments and choose which campaign strategies to employ in order to maximize their vote share, with the ultimate aim to win the majority of seats in the Lok Sabha.

The objective of the game is to form the government by winning the majority of the seats in the Lok Sabha or Parliament of India. This is done by winning the constituencies that send the maximum number of your MPs to Parliament.

Components:

Each box of The Poll contains 6 types of cards, 3 types of boards, cubes, money and a minute timer.

Constituency cards are the problem cards, policy cards are the solution cards and the campaign strategies are the ones that ensure victory

Media is a +/- 1 vote booster card. Election Commission is the ‘Just say no’ card, and is employed to prevent illegal activities on the part of other players. Change The Election card is a ‘risk ‘card - each player may pick up 2 of these during the course of a game.

(L)Central Board for common cards and resources; (Middle) Player Mat. Each Player gets one; (R) Constituency Board. The numbers 1, 2,3 represent the Constituency Number, which corresponds to the tracker on the Player Mat.

Set up:

Each team gets:

• 40 coloured cubes
• INR 5000 (5x500; 5x300; 10x100)
• Campaign Cards (Colour coded to cubes)
• 1 Core Policy (Colour Coded)
• 1 player Mat
• 2 Media Card
• 1 Election Commission card

On the central board

• Shuffle and keep Constituency cards
• Shuffle and place all Policies cards
• Remaining Media cards
• 1 Community Election Commission card
• INR 4400 Corporate Finance
• 8 Change the Election card (please remove the extra repeats)

The Game Begins when three constituencies are picked up at random from the deck.

Note: It is not the number of constituencies, but the number of seats you gain in parliament that help you win

BASIC SEQUENCE OF ACTIONS:

1) START

Name your political party! Call it whatever!

The game begins when three constituencies are randomly selected from the constituency deck. In the first 3 rounds, players contest for 3 constituencies. The number of constituencies in play subsequently increase to 4 in the 4th round and 5 in the 5th.

2) DRAFTING A MANIFESTO:

In each round, the players draft a manifesto in which they select the best/most appropriate policies from the cards dealt to them and those in play. They must draft a manifesto that seeks to address the issues listed in the constituencies they are fighting for.

3) DEPLOYING CUBES

Upon deciding where their manifesto works or does not, each player will simultaneously mark their influence on the constituencies up for play by putting the prescribed number of cubes on each of the issues their policies targets.

4) DEBATE, ARGUE AND REACH CONSENSUS:

The players then argue for the viability of the policies in their manifesto and whether they can solve the issues of the constituencies using them, in an attempt to keep their vote cubes on the board.

5) PICK THE BEST STRATEGY

Over four days [four turns of the timer] of campaigning, each player chooses one campaign strategy for one constituency per day in order to maximize their own influence or reduce another player’s; They may also use the media and the election commission cards at this stage.

Understand the issues

Constituency Card:

The constituency cards are what players contest to win over the course of the game

The game begins when 3 constituencies are picked up at random from the constituency deck on the central board.

Players must familiarize themselves with the issues of the constituencies in play, understand them and discuss among themselves if there are any clarifications.

Each box contains 50 constituency cards from all over the country with an accurate representation of their problems.

The objective of the game is to win the maximum number of constituencies with the highest number of ‘seats flipped in parliament’.

Each card has the same structure:

• on the top are issues,
• below the statistics and
• then the win conditions and reward.

Issues or Problems

The constituency card is the problem card — they have either 1, 2,3 or 4 issues, of the people of that constituency.

The players must familiarize themselves with the issues by reading them carefully with 2 turns of the timer.

familiarise yourselves with the issues so that players pick the best policies while drafting their manifestoes

Listen to the explanation of what the constituency card is here!

There are two types of constituency cards: National issues and Regular constituencies.

National Issues only have one issue, which must be solved with 3 policy cards. Regular Constituencies have between 2 and 4 issues and each issue can only be solved with one of the five policies in the player’s manifesto. [for manifesto building the next in the series]

These are the core issues of the constituency which the players must try to solve by choosing the correct policies when they draft their manifesto. On the (L) is a national issue that must be solved through up to three policies while on the (R) is a regular constituency with four issues.

CUBES

Each player gets forty cubes of one colour - blue, yellow, green or red. These cubes represent their party workers, who must be deployed on the constituencies to ensure that their party gets the required number of votes/vote share.

How do I know when to deploy their cubes?

Once you have drafted your manifesto, you must deploy these cubes on the issues that you believe your policies address, resolve or fix.

How do I know how many cubes I must put?

Each issue is weighted. Right next to the issue is a plus sign and the number of cubes, which denote the number of cubes that can be placed on that issue.

Here is a short, fast-paced video on the constituency card:

Statistics:

The location, whether it is an urban, rural or peri-urban seat. The religious and caste based demographics and lastly the spending limit

Statistics represent the geography, the demography and the spending limit of the constituency.

These statistics are of use during the campaigning phase. This is actual demographic data taken from the reportts of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). These set the conditions for the campaign cards usage.

So read the conditions of the campaign cards carefully.

Spending Limit: Each constituency has a spending limit that each player must try to adhere to it. The other players must ensure this adherence and hold the player accountable for a failure to comply.

Win Condition

Votes to win:

The game is a race and the objective is to reach the number first (First Past the Post).

a) If a player has the required number of vote cubes within the four days of campaigning they can claim the constituency by removing it off the board.

b) If no one hits the number of cubes in the four days of campaigning, the person with the maximum at the end will win and take the constituency off the board and keep it with them.

c) If there is a tie (E.g- both players are at six when win condition is seven), the tied players can continue campaigning by using more and more resources such as cubes, money and strategy cards. The players may also negotiate the constituency off the board.

d) If a player wants to support another player, they may negotiate and come to an agreement. The terms and conditions of the negotiation are left to the players/teams.

Once a constituency is won, the winning player must remove it from play. All the cubes on that constituency are added to the discard pile. These cubes cannot be reused.

Seats flipped in Parliament

These are the points you get or the seats you win. The aim is to focus on the constituencies with the maximum number of seats flipped in parliament.

EACH PLAYER MUST:

a) Understand what the issues are, what they mean and what they ask for

b) Identify a pattern or similarities in issues across the constituencies

c) A problem can be approached from a variety of perspectives. Therefore, one player’s manifesto is not better than another’s by default. Each player must convince the others of the merits and demerits of the chosen policies

The entire table gets 2 minutes or two turns of the timer to read and familiarize themselves with the issues!