3.17 Crore Set To Vote In Elections, Women Voters Up By 23 Lakh
Hyderabad: A total of 3.17 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the upcoming state Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, up from 2.73 crore in 2018, with number of male and female voters reaching near-equivalent figures, as per the final electoral list released on Wednesday.
Chief electoral officer Vikas Raj released the list, as per which the number of voters in the 18-19 age group, i.e. first-time voters, has gone up to 5.32 lakh, a new high. The list was released after a second special summary revision (SSR), the official said.
As per the information, the number of electors in the final roll is 3,17,17,389 voters, of whom 1,58,71,493 are male, 1,58,43,339 are female and 2,557 belong to the third gender. Of the total, there are 15,338 service electors and 2,780 overseas electors.
There was a net 5.8 per cent increase in the number of electors since January 2023, it was revealed.
In a statement, Vikas Raj said that it was a remarkable achievement of the present SSR in enrolling 5,32,990 18-19-year-old voters from January 6 to September 28. “As a result, the electoral rolls have 8,11,640 new voters in the 18-19 age cohort. This constitutes 2.56 per cent of the electoral roll. Never in the past was this percentage achieved. This was achieved by identifying 18+ citizens in their colleges through a dedicated AERO and by other methods, like obtaining a list of students who appeared in Class 10 exam from 2019 to 2022,” Vikas Raj said.
The CEO said that all applications received before September 19, 2023, were disposed of and from the date of draft publication of roll till September 28, 17,01,087 additions, 6,10,694 deletions and 5,80,208 corrections of entries were carried out.
“Since the roll was frozen on September 28 to enable generation of final roll and printing, 57,617 applications received prior to September 29 could not be disposed of before the freezing of the roll. However, all these applications have now been disposed of and such eligible voters will be able to vote in the upcoming assembly elections,” he said.
Vikas Raj said there are 4,43,943 voters aged above 80 and 5,06,493 provisions for persons with disabilities (PwDs).
“It is important to note that though the final roll has been published, the exercise of continuous updating of the electoral roll will continue. All eligible persons (those who have completed 18 years of age on October 1, 2023, and who are otherwise eligible) who could not make an application for enrolment earlier are once again requested to apply for inclusion in the roll,” Vikas Raj said.
The CEO further said that an intensive effort was made in the past two years to purify the electoral roll. “As a result of these efforts, a total of 22,02,168 dead, duplicate and shifted voters were removed from the electoral roll; 4,89,574 of these voters are from the GHMC and surrounding areas. Further, 2,47,756 dead voters have also been deleted from the electoral roll this year,” he said.
In case of a mistake in enrolment details, the elector can apply for correction using Form 8, online or on VHA or through the booth-level officer.