Delhi will have 3.49 lakh first time voters

[1]

Around 3.49 lakh first time voters in the age group of 18 to 19 will be able to exercise their franchise in assembly polls in the city slated for November.

As per the electoral roll published Tuesday the total number of voters in the city have been estimated at 1,14,88,752 out of which 63,68 694 are men and 51,19517 are women voters. The young voters population stands at 3.04 per cent of the total electors population.

The number of total eligible voters in 2008 assembly polls was 1.07 crore while it went up to 1.11 crore when Lok Sabha election had been held in 2009.

Delhi’s chief electoral officer Vijay Dev said voting will take place in 11,763 polling booths in 2,603 locations. Dev said 634 polling locations have been identified as “critical” and special security measures will be put in place in those areas.

Dev said the Election Commission will continue updating the electoral roll till 10 days before the last date of filling the nominations for the assembly polls though the final electoral roll has been published.

Giving details about steps to encourage eligible youngsters to exercise their franchise, Dev said the Commission has appointed one “ambassador” each in 863 educational institutions to ensure all students get their names enrolled in voters’ list.

Dev said 110 camps have been organised in schools and colleges for enrolling students since April. 324 camps were also organised in areas where percentage of women electorate is very low. A total of 7,249 homeless people have been enrolled in the voters’ list.

Dev said the upper limit for expenditure will remain at Rs 14 lakh for candidates.

As per the provisions, each candidate will have to open a separate bank account for making transactions of receipt and payment for election purposes and details of such account will have to be submitted to returning officers at the time of nomination.

To keep a check on expenditure, assistant expenditure observers will maintain a “shadow expenditure register” of each candidate for all expenditures made by candidates and the same would be compared with the expenditure register maintained by the candidates.