Chennai: Only a third of the nearly 26 lakh 'first-time' voters in Tamil Nadu have enrolled themselves to vote and that betrays the poor awareness and lack of interest among the state's youth in the vital democratic duty of participating in electoral politics for positive change.
Releasing the final electoral roll following revision, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told reporters at his office in the Fort St George on Thursday that only 8,98,759 people in the 18-19 age group, constituting the first-time voter bloc, have enrolled themselves as voters in the state.
"Considering that the population census shows a total number of 25.99 lakh people in the 18-19 age group, we find only about a third enrolling as voters. We are conducting a lot of awareness programmes to bring in new voters", Sahoo said, adding, "I appeal to all those whose names have been left out to get their names included".
With 1.18 crore voters in the 20-29 bracket and 1.38 crore electors between 30 and 39 years, young voters form a sizeable chunk of Tamil Nadu's electorate according to the data released by him. There are only 10,12,200 voters in the 80-plus age group.
CEO Sahoo said from 5.86 crore voters last year (as per the final rolls published on January 10, 2018), the electorate size has seen a marginal jump to 5.91 crore which includes 97 voters living abroad. "97 people living abroad have applied and we have given them (enrolment in the voters' list). They can vote based on their passport. Others living abroad can also apply", he said.
The Sholinganallur Assembly segment, a Chennai suburb, has the highest number of voters in the State with 6,18,695 voters and Harbour in Chennai has the least number of voters with 1,66,515. Tirupparankundram constituency in Madurai topped the young voters count in TN with 7,696 in the list.
Sharing details related to the final rolls following the revision exercise that began on September 1, 2018 with January 1, 2019 as the qualifying date, Sahoo said 5,62,937 voters were struck off the list due to shifting, death, and double entries.
Though the final list is published, continuous updating of rolls will continue and eligible voters can apply to include their names, he said.
As many as 14,29,471 applications were received for inclusion of names and 13,96,326 of them were taken on rolls.
There were also applications during the revision exercise like 1,26,920 from those who sought appropriate changes in respect of their addresses on rolls in view of shifting of residence. Of the one lakh plus address change applications, 1,22,301 were accepted and appropriate changes were made on the rolls, the CEO said.
