As many as 55,455 new voters have been added to the voters’ list of Chandigarh. These new voters include 29,332 male and 26,123 female voters.
After the special summary revision of electoral rolls, the total number of voters in the city is now pegged at 5,80,700. The voters’ list is revised every year. The process of revision of the voters’ list started on October 1, 2013 and continued for one month.
Earlier, the city had 5,25,608 voters. During the revision of electoral rolls, 363 voters’ names have been deleted from the list. To spread awareness about enrollment, ‘Vote-athon’ was organised in October 2013 by the Chandigarh Election Department. “A total of 55,455 new voters have been added to the electoral list of the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The total number of voters in the city is now 5,80,700,” said Joint Chief Electoral Officer Tilak Raj, while talking to The Pioneer.
He said, “The photo electoral rolls for Chandigarh have been revised with reference to January 1, 2014 as the qualifying date after inviting claims and objections. A copy of the voters’ list has been published on January 6, 2014 and will be available with the Chandigarh Election Department or on its website.”
The prepared EPIC would be distributed to the newly-registered electors on January 25 i.e., National Voters Day at their nearest polling stations. The official said, “This time, the Election Department had conducted special camps for enrollment of young residents in the universities, colleges and schools of Chandigarh. Also, for the convenience of the residents, the forms for enrollment, corrections, transposition and deletion of names in the electoral rolls were provided at all the Sampark Centres.”
Also, an NGO Volunteer for Better India had joined hands with the UT Election Department in an effort to enroll eligible voters in the electoral list of the city. Around 68,000 new voters were added to the electoral list that was published on January 15, 2013.
With the lS elections 2014 only a few months away, the political parties would now be eyeing 55,455 new voters who have been added to the electoral list of the city. During the last lok Sabha elections in 2009, out of over 5 lakh registered voters in the city, the slum colonies had around 1.6 lakh voters, city sectors had 2.8 lakh and villages had around 80,000 voters. In the previous lS polls, the voting percentage in colonies and villages has remained higher than the sectors. The poll percentage in the year 2004 was 52.06 per cent. In 1998 and 1999, it was only 42.36 per cent and 46.99 per cent respectively. And, breaking the record of past 20 years, the voting percentage was recorded over 65.02 per cent in 2009.