The voters’ list in Kerala has witnessed a big jump in the enrolment of young voters ever since the draft list was published last October.
A little over 3.11 lakh voters were newly added to the list after the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO-Kerala) published the draft list on October 27 last year.
The draft list featured 77,176 first-time voters. By the time, the final voters’ list was published on January 22 this year, this number rose to 2,88,533. As on March 25, first-time voters numbered 3,88,981. This number represents voters aged between 18 and 19 who will be exercising their franchise for the first time on April 26. According to the office of the CEO, this encouraging jump in enrolment in such a short period also provides Kerala an enviable position among the States.
Campaigns
CEO (Kerala) Sanjay Kaul attributed the increase to the campaign undertaken by his office and the District Election Officers to draw the younger generation to the electoral process. Awareness campaigns were organised in colleges, universities and public spaces as part of the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme of the Election Commission.
The ‘Vote Vandi’ mobile unit had toured the constituencies as part of the effort. Posts on voter awareness uploaded on social media platforms also had garnered huge support from the public, Mr. Kaul said.
The enrollment of transgender voters since October also increased from 268 on the draft list to 338 on March 25, the office of the CEO said.
