Not wanting to keep away from exercising their franchise, first time voters and youth queued up at various polling stations across Salem on Thursday, with many of them saying that it was an opportunity to vote for change and development.

R. Gautham, a second year engineering student, who cast his first vote, expects the new government at the Centre to waive educational loans and create more job opportunities for the youth.

R. Girija and S. Gayathri, B.Com CA students, said “We were quite afraid in the beginning as it was a new experience for us. We acquainted ourselves with using the electronic voting machines by watching related videos on the television and YouTube. We felt proud after the indelible ink mark was made on our finger”, they said.

For R. Koushikapriya, a third year engineering student, her vote was for change. “I voted for change. We felt newbies should be given a chance rather than experienced politicians”, she said. T. Priyadarshini, an assistant professor at a private college who voted for the first time in this elections, said, “We have done our democratic duty by voting. Now it is the turn of politicians and public representatives to be honest towards the public and do what is expected of them by the people who voted them to power.”

In Erode, first-time voters were happy over the introduction of Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT) machines, as they felt that the system was more transparent and would put an end to charges of EVM rigging.

S. Yamuna (19), a college student, said “After every election, there are claims by the losing political party that EVMs were rigged. Now the machine displays our selection, which is a proof that machines cannot be rigged”.

S. Vanitha (21), who works at an IT firm, voted at a polling station at 46 Pudur village. She said youngsters voted with the hope for more job opportunities and overall development of the nation.

“We have the right to choose the person to lead the country and there should not be any allegations of rigging of EVMs. To that extent, the VVPAT system is better”, she said.