In a bid to boost awareness about the upcoming General Elections in April, the District Election Office (DEO), Bhubaneswar has launched a Facebook page ‘Vote Bhubaneswar Vote’.
The Facebook page has been developed by the DEO (Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation) in collaboration with a private software firm. The page, which already has garnered more than 40 likes, is aimed at creating a larger participation of the first time voters and the youth in general.
The page is supervised by the DEO officials and will eventually be linked to a Twitter account.
A senior DEO official said the initiative is more about enhancing political literacy among the youth, enhancing voter participation and encouraging the public to choose the Government wisely.
The page description has cheeky captions like “Exercise Your Finger to Vote - Don’t be an Angutha Chaap!” City based election related information like constituencies, candidates and party details have already been updated on the page. The page also contains trivia about seven Assembly and three Lok Sabha constituencies of the city.
Besides, details about how to find name, serial number and polling booth details have also been provided. The DEO has also planned a slew of election related awareness campaigns for the city in order to increase voter participation.
During 2009 General Elections, the voting percentage of the Capital was only 40 per cent. Sources said this was the lowest voter turnout for a General Election in the entire State. The page will intensify the awareness programmes initiated by the Election Commission like Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) among others.
