ECI draft on voters ahead of elections

Mumbai: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the state branch of the election commission of India (ECI) has prepared a draft of eligible voters, which was published on September 1. According to the draft, a total 8,44,87,905 people will exercise their franchise in the general election, of which, 4,43,43,002 crore are male voters while 4,01,42,878 crore are female, and 2,025 third gender.

This means that only 38,36,811 voters have increased in comparison to the last general election held in April 2014. There were about 8,06,51,094 eligible voters in 2014. The voters may further increase by 15 lakh as applications will be accepted of new voters completing 18 years on January 1, 2019 till such time the code of conduct is announced.

However, voters in Mumbai have decreased by 6,18,621 in the draft. There were a registered 92,77,933 voters in Mumbai in the 2018 draft while in the 2014 general election, there were 98,96,554. This time, the state branch of ECI is focusing on enrolling more disabled citizens as they are planning to make the general election accessible to the differently-abled. They have directed all district collectors to contact NGOs, working for the welfare of the disabled, to enroll them in the voter list.

An official of the state branch of ECI said that they were appealing to citizens to check the draft and see whether their names and addresses were correct or not. In case, they found that their name or address was wrong, they could make an application for correction before October 31. He also said they had directed all district collectors to contact educational institutions to enroll young students who had not been enrolled, yet. Collectors had also been directed to take meetings of political party representatives.