Huge increase in enrolment of young voters

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 (CEOKerala) published the draft list on October 27 last year.

The draft list featured 77,176 firsttime 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, firsttime 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.

Election officials are exploring the possibility of arranging childcare facilities in selected polling station locations in the State to help voters arriving with children for the April 26 Lok Sabha polls.

Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Sanjay Kaul said the plan is to have creches at polling station locations that have more than four booths. “The facility will be provided depending on the availability of space. We are assessing all such locations,” Mr. Kaul told The Hindu.

The initiative is part of the voterfriendly measures proposed to ensure a hasslefree election experience for parents. It is also