To ensure maximum voters’ turnout, the Election Commission of India on Sunday exercised its franchise in favour of increasing the voting duration by two hours. Now, the electorate can vote between 7 am and 6 pm.
Earlier, the polling was held between 8 am and 5 pm — for nine hours, which has now been increased to 11 hours.The decision, to enhance the hours of poll during General Elections 2014, was taken in accordance with the provision of Section 56 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. As per the provisions, the Commission has been made empowered to fix the hours of poll, which shall not be less than eight hours.
The decision was taken after taking into account various factors such as extreme hot weather condition and early sunrise and sunset in some regions to facilitate voters, a spokesman of office of Punjab Chief Electoral Officer said.
The ECI has now fixed the polling hours in all parliamentary constituencies of the state from 7 am to 6 pm, the spokesman added.“The Commission has felt that since the elections will be held in summer, more voters will turn up to exercise their franchise towards the evening when the weather cools. That would likely lead to long queues at polling stations as voting draws to a close.
The spokesman said that the decision would help voters to turn out in large numbers to exercise their franchise in the lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, the DEOs have been directed to give wide publicity regarding poll hours in their respective constituencies.
The increase in poll time also comes in view of a quantum jump in the number of voters across the country and the trend of bigger turnout in recent elections.A total of 1.92 crore voters, of which 90.94 lakh are female voters, and 1.01 crore are male, are expected to exercise their franchise in Punjab during lok Sabha elections on April 30.Of these voters, a total of about seven lakh are those whose names have been newly added on electoral rolls since 2012 Assembly elections, including 2.5 lakh first-timers.