Supporting Migrants to Stand as a Councillor

Brief description 

Migrant Democracy Project (MDP) campaigns for the right to vote for all residents. In Colchester City Council, Councillor Kemal Çufoğlu, a first-generation migrant who was trained by MDP to become a councillor, proposed MDP’s motion on votes for all in the city council. 

Kemal is a Green Party councillor which is the minority party in the council. There were low chances of the motion passing as the other parties had not proposed the motion themselves and often vote against motions proposed by the opposition.

MDP identified a group of local migrants without the right to vote and encouraged and supported them to write to their councillors, asking them to vote in favour of the motion. MDP also supported two residents to speak at the council meeting with an emotional message on why they want to have the right to vote.

Outcome

Because of this campaign effort, the motion passed with support from most councillors. Read more about the story on this website.

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