More than 15 lakh teens will vote for the first time in Assembly elections

Team Udayavani, Feb 18, 2018, 9:54 AM IST

Bengaluru: For the upcoming Assembly polls more than 15,42,121 teens, aged between 18 and 19, have registered to vote.

Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said on Saturday that he youth voters born after January 1, 1999 enrolled to vote this time is more than twofold the number of first-time voters in the 2013 Assembly decisions. “Of the 15.42 lakh young voters, 7.72 lakh have been selected in the progressing special summary update of electoral rolls,” he said.

The final electoral rolls will be distributed on February 28 and the number of voters total at 4.96 crore for the time being. The Bangalore South Assembly voting demographic has the most elevated number of voters in the state at 5.01 lakh, while Sringeri in Chikkamagaluru area has the least with only 1.62 lakh voters.

Initially, the Election Commission will set up all-women voting stations in Assembly where populace of women is high. “All work forces in these surveying stations will be ladies,” Kumar said. The voter gender ratio is presently 973 ladies for 1,000 men and it is enhancing, he included.

Openness is the topic of the 2018 decisions and the offices of the chief electoral officer is working with the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) to launch a special drive and distinguish voters who are people with inabilities. “The DWCD has subtle elements of 12 lakh people with disabilities. Reasonable voting stations are being recognized for them,” Kumar said.

He focused on that voters can apply to be added to the electoral rolls even after they are published on February 28. “It’s a misguided judgment that addition, deletion or alteration can’t be made after final rolls are presented. Electoral role revision is a constant procedure,” he said.

Upwards of 30.41 lakh applications have been received under the special summary revision, of which 17.12 lakh were for additions and 10.41 lakh for deletion. “No summary deletion is occurring this time like it occurred in 2013 when 16 lakh names were erased. Up until now, we have erased 10.13 lakh voters, of whom 3.67 lakh are dead,” he said. Kumar additionally propelled a logo for the 2018 Assembly surveys whose slogan is ‘Inclusive, Accessible and Ethical’.

Kumar also complained relating to consideration of immigrants in the electoral rolls were highest in the Bengaluru municipal limits. “We are talking about this intimately with every single political party,” he said. The Election Commission has requested that all parties designate booth level operators to screen the procedure of poll revision.