‘Urban apathy’ main reason behind low voter turnout: CEO Bharathi

The CEO, who was presiding over the ‘Camp at Campus’ — a campaign targeting the first-time voters, continued to prod the gathering of students and faculty with various questions on the importance of voting. As the crowd remained silent, she said, “If  there are 100 people and only 50 vote, then the majority of these 50 will form the government. Hence, it depends on us whether 50 or 80 or 90 should participate”.

“Laziness”, “lack of interest”, and “lack of awareness” were the various answers she got from the audience when she quizzed them on the reasons “why people don’t vote”.

Bharathi, in turn, apprised the audience of the massive machinery and “mammoth” efforts put in by the Election Commission to ensure that people come to the polling booths to vote. “The Model Code of Conduct, the entire closing down of everything to create an atmosphere for elections… Maybe this time your vote is elsewhere, but next time think of all those things. Only then there is meaningful democracy. Forget about police and paramilitary forces, there are five lakh presiding and polling officers.”

In Gujarat alone, the Election Commission has spent Rs 500 crore on the election, she said. “We have fundamental rights and duties in the Constitution. In democracy, too, we don’t have compulsory voting, we can’t force anyone. If compulsory voting is there, then our job is done. We don’t have to waste time (on such campaigns). The main job would be to conduct elections,” she added.

Highlighting the lower female voting percentage of Gujarat, the officer also emphasised on achieving 80 per cent voter turnout in the state. Ironically, Gujarat recorded 64 per cent voter turnout — 3 percentage points less than the national average of 67 per cent in the 2019 General Elections.

Appealing to the students to participate responsibly in the election, the CEO said that if they are aware and responsible, maybe in next elections her team would not need to do such camps. RRU, a central university and an institute of national importance that specialises in national and internal security and police, has “nearly 80 per cent students from other states”, Registrar Shishir Gupta told The Indian Express.