Vote and Beyond aims to increase citizen participation in the solution of local problems by bringing citizens together online in the Digital Democracy Platform that it has implemented. The residents will come together online on the Digital Democracy Platform and will develop solutions for the problems of the districts. Oy ve Ötesi will contribute to the process of shaping the solution proposals put forward by the residents and will work to put these proposals on the agenda of the City Council.
The Digital Democracy Platform is a platform suitable for the information and communication technology of the age, where citizens can voice their local problems, see each other's suggestions and complaint and discuss them, and create solutions as a result of these discussions.
Mustafa Köksalan, President of Vote and Beyond Association, shares the following view on the subject: “One of the most important changes that digital technologies have created in our lives is that they enable the development of platforms that facilitate the participation of citizens, especially in local government processes. With the Digital Democracy Platform, we aim to enable district residents to participate effectively in local government and decision-making processes. The Digital Democracy Platform creates a space where citizens can present and discuss the problems they have identified and the solutions they have developed, instead of choosing one of the limited options offered to them or submitting their suggestions and complaints individually to the competent authorities. Thanks to this pilot application, which aims to introduce participation-oriented digital democracy tools to citizens, we expect an increase in both the number of demands from citizens and the tendency of local governments to use digital democracy tools.”
The platform will be implemented as a pilot application in Istanbul Avcılar as of August 2021. After the pilot implementation, it is aimed to spread the platform to a wider application area and to provide a roadmap for municipalities to use participatory digital democracy practices.
Detailed information about the platform can be accessed from the website dijitaldemokrasi.org and the e-mail address [email protected].