New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) Posters will be put up on city buses and social media campaign will be intensified to disseminate awareness messages for voters’ enrolment during the special summary revision of Delhi’s electoral roll starting November 1, which poll authorities have planned to carry out as a month-long festival for the electorate.
During this exercise, any person who would be 18 years or more on or before January 1, 2022 will be eligible to enrol as a voter. The final roll will be published on January 5.
The office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Delhi is busy making preparations to ensure the process takes place smoothly and no voter is left behind.
“The special summary revision of Delhi’s electoral roll with January 1, 2022 as the qualifying date is all set to begin from November 1. It will take place till November 30. And, we have planned to carry out this exercise in the spirit of a festival. So, the month-long period is being called a ‘Voters Utsav’,” a senior official of the Delhi CEO Office said.
Special digital posters have been put up on its Facebook and Twitter handles to raise awareness about the exercise. Posters carry the tagline ‘Dilli ka Voter Utsav’ and a slogan ‘Chalo Voter Bane Hum ‘.
Delhi’s last electoral roll was published in January 2021, according to which the total number of eligible voters in the city had then stood at over 1.48 crore.
Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral roll with respect to January 1, 2021 as the qualifying date, was done in all the 70 assembly constituencies of Delhi.
“The draft electoral roll will be published on November 1 at all polling stations of Delhi as well as on the website of CEO Delhi. With that anyone becoming 18 years or more on or before January 1, 2022 will be eligible to enrol as voter by applying in Form-6 along with a photo, age proof and residence proof online or via VoterHelpline mobile app,” Delhi CEO Ranbir Singh said.
He appealed to all newly-eligible and left-out voters to immediately download the app and register in the voter list during this SSR.
“We have carried out a number of events in the run-up to the exercise to disseminate this message far and wide. Let’s all join together to fulfil the mission of the Election Commission of India that ‘no voter be left behind’,” the CEO said.
Singh also said that besides using social media platforms to reach out to as many youth as possible, “posters will be put on DTC buses, with awareness messages, appealing voters to take part in the exercise, he added.
Keeping the objective of ‘no voter to be left behind’ in focus, “we consider social media as a key partner for making the election process participative and inclusive,” the CEO had earlier said.
“Today’s youth is tech-savvy and spends a lot of time on social media. We should therefore interact with them, where they spend their time the most and motivate them to become proud voters of our great democracy,” he had said.
The office of the CEO, through its social media platforms and beyond, had endeavoured to expand its outreach ahead of the latest SSR of the election roll.
From physically reaching out to the youth and others through various events to hosting meetings online with representative heads of various colleges and universities in the city, the poll body made efforts to connect with as many electorate as possible in the run-up, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On October 24, the Delhi CEO had interact with representatives of about 100 non-government organisations, said that NGOs have a vital role in promoting voter education and electoral participation.
The total number of electors in the final electoral roll of Delhi as on January 15, 2021 had stood at 1,48,98,069 which was 2,05,933 more than the total electors — 1,46,92,136 — in the final roll published on January 6, 2020, the CEO Office had earlier said.
On October 21, Singh had interacted online with principals of 49 colleges of Delhi University, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Ambedkar University Delhi and Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women on activities associated with the SSR.
During the event, he had also said that claims and objections can be filed during the whole month of November.
Earlier this month, ‘CEO Hpdesks’ were set at various special Lok Adalat sites in Delhi by the poll body here, seeking to offer assistance to the public for voter identity card enrolment and other electoral processes.
These sites include the court complexes at Karkardooma, Tis Hazari, Patiala House, Saket, Rohini, Rouse Avenue and Dwarka.
In keeping with the need for technology-driven advancement in the electoral process, Singh recently had directed district authorities to ensure that those booth-level officers who cannot handle smartphones are replaced by tech-savvy personnel during revision of electoral rolls.
