Demoex direct democratic approach was something new in the political system the year 2002. New ideas calls for marketing strategies. In order to candidate in the local election we needed to devise a ballot paper. In Sweden, the political correctness is almost a law. Everybody loves democracy, but trying to extend the democracy further is rather suspicious and far from the political mainstream.
Even if it does not matter who is representing the Demoex voters – because the representative has no more power than anyone else – our ballot had to look both serious and appealing. The candidates alone had to show that direct democracy means a change into something new. At the same time the ballot paper had to look political correct. I disqualified myself on the ballot, because there were already enough of white, male, middle-age persons in the council.
Our first sharp voting in Demoex was the candidate ranking. At the top came Parisa Molagholi, one of the students involved from the beginning. Parisa’s young age (19) and whole appearance was a clear signal of change in policy. Parisa showed that the party was neither populistic or xenophobic, as detractors like to think otherwise.
Parisa and everyone else on the ballot had to sign a contract in which they pledged to add their voices to the statistically equivalent outcome of referendums on the Internet. This is the mechanism that makes it possible for citizens to take more part in politics than to vote only for a party every fourth year.
A failure or success? 
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