Assam election office eyes 85% voting; engages youth icons to educate voters

GUWAHATI: With an eye on achieving at least 85 per cent of voting in the Assam assembly elections in March-April, the state election office in the state has engaged youth icons Riyan Parag, Kopil Bora, Anindita Paul, Rakesh Banik as Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) icons.

Teenaged cricketer Riyan Parag, who is going to be a first time voter having attained the age of 18 years this year, has already started featuring television advertisements over the past few days. Actor Kopil Bora, singer Anindita Paul and para cyclist Rakesh Banik are also going to feature in several voter education programmes over the next month, said Assam chief election officer (CEO) Nitin Khade.

The overall voter turnout was 84.72 per cent in the 2016 elections in the state, which is also the standing record for Assam.

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Among the voters’ education programmes the election office has lined up under SVEEP are street plays, mob flash, multimedia campaign.

Assam will go to polls in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6.

Khade handed over electoral registration card as a voter to Indian Premier League player Riyan Parag as he completed 18 years and became eligible for voting. Riyan has been featuring in the Rajasthan

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Khade also said the elections this time will be unique due to COVID-19.

Reiterating the COVID-19 guidelines, the CEO said additional polling stations will be set up to cater to voters as every polling station will be allowed to be used by not more than 1000 voters. Earlier, a polling station was designed to accommodate 1500 voters.

At the polling booths, the voters’ temperature will be read, rubber gloves will be issued to use the EVMs, soaps and water would be provided for hand washing etc, he said. He also said there would be waiting rooms to help voters avoid crowd and contamination standing in serpentine queues.