EC to work towards 'complete participation' of voters

As four states recorded highest- ever turnouts in history in the just-concluded assembly elections, the Election Commission has voiced hope that this "revolution" will lead to "complete participation" in the coming elections.

"The Commission is hopeful that in the coming elections, this increased participation will lead to complete participation," EC's director general Akshay Raut said.

Raut, who is also incharge of the EC's Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) cell, said, "The Commission is consciously feeling that this programme has converted itself into a participative revolution."

He said, "the participative revolution will increase further in the coming elections" and the Commission is happy that the electoral management programme has given good results.

The SVEEP cell has been set up by the Commission for educating voters across the country and ensuring their participation in elections.

The EC will further strengthen this programme, which works on the "principle of information, motivation and facilitation" and will help turn this programme into a national movement.

Raut said four states of Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab and Uttarkhand that went to polls now, besides West Bengal and Tamil Nadu that went to polls last year, have shown historic records after India's independence.

He added that 12 states that went to polls in the last two years have shown uniformal increase in voter participation, for which the Commission had worked on a number of programmes in the past few years.