Nearly 80,000 youngsters who turned 18 this year will not cast their votes in the upcoming lok Sabha elections on April 10 in the national Capital. The reason is not apathy but ineligibility, because believe it or not, these 18-year- olds are simply not eligible to vote!
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has fixed January 1, 2014 as the qualifying date for revision of electoral rolls. Those who have attained 18 years of age on or after January 2, 2014 will not be eligible to exercise their voting right.
Top sources told The Pioneer that it is estimated that at least nearly 80,000 youths turning 18 years between January 2 and April 10, 2014 would not be able to vote as their names are not included in the voters’ list. In other words, a person who has attained the age of 18 years, three months and nine days, is not eligible to enroll in the voter list. It is estimated that on an average 2.80 lakh to 3 lakh youngsters enroll every year in the electoral list.
During the Assembly elections in December last year, nearly 2.60 lakh youth could not exercise their voting rights as their names were not in the voters’ list due to the cut-off date fixed by the ECI.
Reacting to this, a BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity that it’s a great anomaly in the ECI’s guidelines if 80,000 youths would be denied enrolment despite eligibility.
Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev further stated that consequently, all individuals turning 18 between January 2, 2014 and April 10 (cut-off date for inclusion in the rolls for the 2014 elections) cannot be included in this year’s electoral rolls due to cut off date fixed by the ECI.
As per data, constituencies like Kirari, Karawal Nagar, Vikaspuri, Burari, Bawana, Mundka, Rithala, Najafgarh, Nangloi Jat, Mustafabad, Gokulpuri, Sultanpur Majra, Matiala and Delhi Cantonment have the highest number of first-time voters who enrolled in the voter list in 2014. A total of 2.26 lakh youngsters enrolled in the voters’ list by January 31, 2014. There are 1.20 crore voters in Delhi. Of these 66.64 lakh are male and 53.76 lakh are female and 538 are transgenders. The gender ratio is 804.
“As per the ECI guidelines on enrolment of voters, for an election to be held in a particular year, an individual who has attained the age of 18 years on January 1, of that particular year is not eligible to be enrolled in the voter list,” Dev said.