Public Voting Rules

These Public Voting Rules govern participation in the International Cultures Celebration Public Voting process for the City Showcase Competition. By casting a Public Vote, you agree to these rules.

Purpose of Public Voting

Public Voting is designed to demonstrate national, diaspora, and international enthusiasm for candidate cities in each participating nation. Public vote totals may be considered as one factor in the overall city selection process. Final recognition of the winning city remains subject to qualification review and official national approval, independent of public vote totals.

Eligibility

• Any individual worldwide may cast a Public Vote
• Voters must be human individuals — automated, bot, or programmatic voting is prohibited
• Voters must provide a valid email address or phone number for verification
• Voters must complete the email or phone verification step for their vote to be counted

One Vote Per Individual

Each individual may cast one verified vote per country per competition cycle. The system detects and prevents duplicate votes from the same email address for the same country. Attempts to submit multiple votes using different email addresses for the same individual are prohibited and may result in all votes from that individual being invalidated.

Verification

All Public Votes require email or phone verification. Unverified votes are not counted. A verification code is sent to the email or phone provided. Verification codes expire after 24 hours. If a code expires, the voter must submit a new vote.

Vote Integrity

• The platform reserves the right to invalidate votes found to be fraudulent, automated, or in violation of these rules
• Vote counts may be adjusted or voided during administrative review
• Organizations coordinating mass-automated voting may be disqualified from the ecosystem

Privacy

Voter personal information is used solely for vote verification, duplicate detection, and ecosystem participation purposes, in accordance with the Privacy Policy. Voter names and emails are not publicly displayed.

Public Display

Aggregate verified vote counts may be displayed publicly on the Platform. Individual voter data is never displayed publicly.

Official Selection

Public Voting results are one input — among several — in the city selection process. National governments, ministries, or authorized national bodies retain authority over the official selection of the city to represent their nation in the International Cultures Celebration. Public Voting does not override official selection authority.