Boosting voter participation: EC to meet dist-level poll officials from 11 states with lowest 2019 turnout

The 11 states and UTs - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand - were selected as their turnout was lower than the average national turnout in 2019 0 67.40%.

The EC will discuss specific action plans to address the causes of lo turnout in certain urban and rural constituencies.

The Election Commission (EC) will Friday meet municipal commissioners and District Election Officers from 11 states that had the lowest turnout in the 2019 general elections in order to deliberate on ways to improve voter turnout for this year’s polls.

The EC will discuss action plans to address the causes of low turnout in certain urban and rural constituencies, an EC statement on Thursday said. The 11 states and UTs — Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand — were picked as their turnout was lower than the average national turnout in 2019 (67.40%), the EC said.

“Of the 50 Parliamentary Constituencies with the lowest voter turnouts, 17 were found to be in metropolitan areas or major cities reflecting an unfortunate trend of urban apathy. Over 50 rural PCs in 9 states with lowest voter turnout have been identified for deliberation on specific issues and developing strategy to enhance poll percentage,” the EC said.

The conference is expected to be attended by the Municipal Commissioners of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Thane, Nagpur, Patna Sahib, Lucknow and Kanpur, and some DEOs from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has in the past flagged the challenge of “urban apathy” and migration from rural areas as causes for low turnout in some areas. Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, will interact with the municipal commissioners and DEOs in the day-long conference.

First uploaded on: 04-04-2024 at 21:39 IST

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Lok Sabha Elections 2024

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