Agartala: The senior officials of the Election Commission of India (ECI) comprising Special Officer Dr Ranavir Singh, and Director to Tripura Santosh Ajmera on Thursday reviewed the ongoing Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign to increase the voters’ turn out in upcoming assembly polls.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kiran Gitte said that ECI has emphasized on improvement of the facilities for Disabled and Old age voters besides reviewing SVEEP Plans and accessibility measures with all District Election Officers.
The ECI officials gave specific suggestions to improve the voter awareness program to get intensive involvement of the people in the election process.
“Tripura has a record of high turnout in the elections – 91.82 per cent in 2013 assembly elections, and 89.38 per cent in 2018 assembly elections. All other elections also have a record of impressive turnout, and our target is to make more in the coming elections,” Gitte said, adding that ECI officials advised DMs to identify the lower turnout areas and find out the reasons for low voting.
The ECI team also passed an instruction to the DEOs to arrange facilities at polling stations like ramps, wheelchairs, sign language volunteers, and ballot papers in braille, so that the persons with disability can exercise their votes conveniently, he pointed out.
Gitte, however, stated that special initiatives like organizing online quiz contests, sessions with the new voters in various institutions, decorative polling stations, setting up youth-managed and the person with disability-managed polling stations in every Assembly Constituency, and organizing Rangoli competitions in every household on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.
“Mission 929 (a special initiative in selected 929 polling stations where the poll percentage was below 88 percent in the 2018 assembly election) to motivate the voters to bring them to the polling stations, the launch of attractive audio-visual videos, jingles to create mass awareness among all sections of voters,” Gitte underlined.
The ECI officials have interacted with the Electoral Literacy Club at Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar College of Belonia in South Tripura followed by a visit to some places in Gomati district and West Tripura district.
