Wednesday, 16 February 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The founder of Social Development for Communities (SDC) foundation Anoop Nautiyal has said that the lack of pro active approach by the Election Commission (EC) is one of reasons for less than enthusiastic voter turnout in Uttarakhand. He said that in view of the climatic conditions the commission should have held the election in Uttarakhand in the last phase of the current election schedule of five states. He said that the weather becomes milder and better in the last week of February. “The polling percent would have further dropped had the rain or snowfall occurred on Feb 14,’’ he said.
Nautiyal added that the EC should have held a comprehensive dialogue with all stakeholders before conducting the elections. He said that the EC normally holds consultations with representatives of political parties but ideally it should have included civil society, media and others in the dialogue. Nautiyal said that in addition to usual promotional campaigns such as jingles, advertisements and appointing brand ambassadors, the commission should adopt a targeted approach to increase the vote per cent. He suggested that the EC should approach people of the areas where low vote per cent is normally seen. Nautiyal said that a vicious cycle is clearly visible in the mountainous areas where due to reduction in population the polling stations are getting farther and farther away. He said that out of the box thinking and innovations should be adopted to increase the polling per cent in the mountainous areas.
The Founder of SDC foundation said the 11 out of 13 districts of the state have reported lower voter turnout in the just concluded elections as compared to the assembly elections of 2017 which is a cause of great worry.
