58.6% population aged 18-19 yrs missing from Punjab voter list

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As many as 1,38,893 (35 per cent) new voters were registered in past around three months in this category as the figure stood at 2,55,887 voters (between 18-19 years) till January 31, 2019.

This is the highest ever enrollment of such voters in this category till date, according to the CEO office data. According to the available figures, in the 2014 elections, only 65,000 voters were registered under this age group and then went up to 3,67,077 during the 2017 Assembly elections.

Some District Electoral Officer (DEOs) claimed that every year over a lakh students go to foreign countries from Punjab to study, and most of them fall under the 18-19 age group due to which the rise in their numbers is less. Others, meanwhile, blamed it on the failure of awareness drives to get these students enrolled.

“If this number of students, who go abroad, is added even than there would be gap of over four lakhs and who says that the vote of these students cannot be made in India because they don’t become foreign citizens just by going there on study basis,” said an educationist Dr Satish Kapoor.