In order to reach out to maximum eligible voters, the Election Commission has collaborated with social networking platform Facebook to launch first Nationwide “Voter Registration Reminder” on July 1. Officials said that the poll panel is launching a ‘Special Drive to enroll left out electors, with a special focus on first-time electors from July 1so as to move in the direction of Commission’s motto that ‘No Voter to be left behind’.
Speaking about the nationwide launch, the Chief Election Commissioner Dr Nasim Zaidi said “I am pleased to announce that the Election Commission is launching a ‘Special Drive to enroll left out electors, with a special focus on first-time electors.”
With over 180 million people in India on Facebook, the ‘Register Now’ button is designed to encourage Indian citizens to register themselves with the Election Commission of India. On 1st July, a notification of the “voter registration reminder” will be sent to people on Facebook in India who are eligible to vote. The reminder will be sent out in 13 Indian languages - English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Assamese, Marathi and Oriya.
This is the first time Facebook's voter registration reminder has been rolled out across India. In 2016 and 2017, Chief Electoral Officers made such efforts at the state level during their respective state elections.
By clicking on the “Register Now" button on Facebook from 1st July 2017, people will be directed to the national voter's service portal www.nvsp.in, which will guide them through the registration process.
EC to announce schedule for Vice Presidential poll
The Election Commission will announce the schedule of vice presidential elections on Thursday. The incumbent vice-president Hamid Ansari was elected as the 13th vice president from August 11, 2007 to August 10, 2012. He was re-elected as 14th vice president on August 11, 2012. The 15th vice president is likely to be sworn in on August 11 this year.