Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Nasim Zaidi on Thursday expressed concern at the declining voter turnout in elections and said voters’ education is the only way to increase participation. He said across the world many democracies are experiencing declining voter turnout and rising apathy to vote among specific groups of people.
“717 million (people) were registered as electors and 300 million people did not turn out to vote in the last Lok Sabha elections,” Zaidi said. He said the poll watchdog realised that “it needed to tread the last mile” where issues like healthy and complete electoral rolls, urban apathy, women’s participation, deficit and youth indifference to the electoral process were to be tackled.