NEW DELHI:
In a bid to check apathy among voters, the Election Commission has come up with an out-of-the-box idea by holding the Karnataka assembly poll in the middle of the week to prevent people plan an outing by clubbing the poll-day holiday with the weekend break.
Voter apathy is a term now used by the poll panel to describe the tendency among the electorate to stay indoors on voting day than going to the polling station to exercise their franchise. ”Date of poll has been kept on a Wednesday. Had it been on a Monday, it would have come with a holiday of Saturday and Sunday. And had it been on a Tuesday, take a day’s off and we can go out … Wednesday is a little difficult,” Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told reporters while announcing the date of Karnataka poll.
While polling will be held on May 10, counting will take place on May 13.
”I am sure, people will not sleep for that long. They can’t go out now … they’ll come (to polling stations),” he said, adding that the move is part of the EC’s effort to ensure greater participation and curb voters’ apathy in going to the polling stations.
Focussed interventions are being made to create awareness in schools and colleges and voter awareness forums in organisations and RWAs, he said.
He said the poll panel is in touch with IT firms, colleges and start-ups to increase awareness on voting.
The Commission also plans to hold ‘Electhons’ to boost voter participation and increase registration of new voters.
Kumar said in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, nine of the top 20 low voter turnout constituencies were urban. This trend was also noticed in recently held Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections held in 2022, the CEC noted. PTI
