Enrol by March-end to cast your vote

First-time voters and those whose names have been left out of the electoral rolls must enrol by March-end to be able to exercise their franchise on May 12 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Ranbir Singh, Delhi’s chief electoral officer said on Monday.

The election commission had announced the schedule for the general elections 2019 on Sunday evening.

Singh said the last date for applying for inclusion of name in the voters’ list is April 12. However, since processing of applications takes about two weeks, it would be better if people apply by the end of this month, he explained.

Singh said special emphasis is being laid to encourage the first time voters to enrol their names since the number of such voters has come down from the last general elections in 2014. In 2014, there were 3.37 lakh first time voters, those who turned 18 in January that year. This year, the number of such voters is just over one lakh. “They must apply now,” Singh said.

The electoral roll was published on January 18 this year after which over 2 lakh voters have been added to the list.

“The total number of voters since January has now been increased to 13,898,141 from 13,695,291. We still have around 90,000 forms to be disposed of. We are getting new applications to enrol every day and the numbers are expected to grow even higher,” said Singh.

There are 7,661,680 males, 6,235,814 female and 647 third-gender voters in the city till date, shows electoral office data. The number of voters in the 18-19 age-group too has increased to around 1.55 lakh from 1,03,433, as published in the electoral roll. According to the CEO office, a total of 1335 duplicate and multiple entries have been deleted from the rolls after verification.

The electoral roll is constantly updated and people can file applications up to 10 days before the last date of filing of nominations on April 23. “The processing of applications takes around 10 to 12 days and in case of applications coming in bulk, it could take longer. I urge voters to not wait for the last minute to avoid any kind of delay and sign up as soon as they can,” said Singh.

Also, the CEO appealed to people having voter-ID cards to verify their names on the electoral rolls and apply “immediately” in case of their names missing from the list.

Singh said special outreach programmes will be planned for areas where voter turnout was low in 2014 elections.“We will identify such areas and work to increase the participation of voters,” said Singh.

The Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participations (SVEEP) programme taken up during every election to maximise enrolment will also include spreading awareness on photo voter slips not to be used as identity proof at the time of casting the vote.

The Election Commission recently came out with a guideline that photo voter slips will no longer be used as standalone identification document during elections. The number of polling stations has increased to 13,816 this year. The number of polling locations too has increased to 2,696, of which 124 have been identified as ‘sensitive’, Singh said.

First Published: Mar 12, 2019 07:17 IST