EC zooms in on garba venues for better voter turnout

Officials have selected 25 venues in the city targeting around five lakh voters. They will put up banners and play jingles of 2-3 minutes duration during garba intervals.

“Till recently,the Election Commission was concerned about the conducting free and fair polls,but now,the EC is as much concerned about raising the voting percentage,” said district election officer and Vadodara collector Vinod Rao.

“Voting percentage in Vadodara is lower than the state’s average turnout. In urban areas,the voting percentage is lower than that of rural areas. So we have decided to sensitise voters on the importance of voting,” he added.

The office of the state’s chief electoral officer has asked the district administration to chalk out its own strategies to sensitise voters. A meeting to this effect was held on Thursday in Vadodara and it was decided the garba venues will be used for the purpose from tonight.

The initiative is part of the Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation wing of the EC,which is entrusted with the task of framing policies and framework for continuous discourse with voters,civil society groups and the media.

The district election office also plans to utilise the network of nearly 12,000 anganwadis,women’s groups with 1.8 lakh members,and industrial groups to spread awareness about elections.