Now, Facebook comes handy for the thousands of voters in poll-bound Mizoram. Having the highest literacy rate in the entire country, Mizoram’s Serchhip district election officials are using the most popular social media not only to educate voters but also to give them proper direction regarding the Assembly polls, which are due in November this year.
“We have created a group in the Facebook to reach out to more people and educate them regarding the elections and thus ensuring maximum transparency in the polling process. This is created basically to facilitate free and fair elections as people will be able to get answers to any queries on election procedures, electoral rolls and other issues,” Serchhip Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer Juhi Mukherjee told The Pioneer on Wednesday.
Serchhip has three Assembly segments including Serchhip, Tuikum and Hrangturzo. Although the dates for the elections are yet to be announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the elections are expected in the tiny Northeastern State in November this year and a total of 44,688 voters are going to cast their votes across 77 polling booths in the district during the polls.
“It is only two to three days since we have created the Facebook group and the response is quite good. We already have around 400 members in the group asking several questions about the polls,” said Mukherjee.
“We thought of using the Facebook as the district has the highest literacy rate and people use the social media like Facebook more often these days,” she said while adding that the Facebook posts that were aimed at campaigning would be removed.
Unlike other States, the churches of different Christian communities always supervise the elections in Mizoram on their own to prevent malpractices during elections.
In the last Assembly polls in the State in 2008, the Congress bagged 32 seats out of the total 40 seats in the Mizoram Assembly.
Opposition Mizo National Front (MNF), which was in power for two consecutive terms from 1998, managed to win just three seats. Five seats were bagged by Independents and others.