Voter Education & Awareness
Ways & Means
Objective
To sensitize the voters about the
importance of participation in an
electoral process to ensure a
responsive,
accountable
and
democratically
elected
government.
Objectives
•To persuade minorities, the homeless,
disabled persons, and many others who lack
access to the vote for a variety of reasons
including poverty, illiteracy, intimidation, or
unfair election processes to participate in
the election process.
•To ensure that people understand their right
as voters and exercise that right with full
knowledge and responsibility.
•To educate the voter about the importance
of vote in democratic country like India by
voting for a suitable and right candidate.
Objectives
• To impart knowledge on voting procedure.
• To educate them about the importance
and use of Electors Photo Identity Cards
(EPIC) in different Government Schemes,
Passport Preparation and Opening Bank
Accounts etc.
• To encourage the voters to participate in
the democracy by enrolling themselves in
the Electoral Rolls and voting at the time
of Election.
Components of Voter education and
awareness
• Voter Information and awareness.
• Electoral education.
• Civic education.
Each set of activity represents a continuum of
educational activities in support of elections and
democracy and are mutually reinforcing.
Key aspects to be covered
under Voter information and
awareness
• Election Process
• Political parties and their
manifestoes.
• Antecedents of candidates.
•
•
•
•
Election process
Importance of voting in an election.
Enrolment as a voter and knowledge of Electoral roll.
EPIC cards.
Polling process-Process of identification, directions of
polling staff, tendered votes etc.
• Awareness about EVM’s and how to cast votes on
EVM’s.
• Basic knowledge about electoral offences and various
do’s and don’ts.
• Basics of Model code of conducts and the rights of
citizens covered under MCC like prevention of
defacement of private property, abuse of
loudspeakers etc.
Political parties
• Imparting knowledge about key components
of election manifestoes of political parties.
• An arena best left out to political parties and
civil society.
• Facilitation by providing an equitable, fair and
transparent opportunity to all political parties
and independent candidates to explain their
developmental agenda at any forum example
electronic and print media.
Antecedents of the candidates
• By putting the antecedents of the candidates
including their declarations in public domain
quickly.
• Generally difficult due to narrow gap between
finalization of list of candidates and actual
polling.
• As electoral authorities we can facilitate the
process by prompt publication of the
information in local press, mass media and web.
• Role of NGO’s/CBO’s is important to make the
people aware about assessing the poll
worthiness of a candidate
Electoral education
• Implies education of future voters.
• Should ideally start in schools.
• Should cover aspects like voter motivation and
preparedness to participate in the electoral process, voting
and electoral process, link between basic human rights and
voting rights; the role, responsibilities and rights of voters;
the relationship between elections and democracy and the
conditions necessary for democratic elections; secrecy of
the ballot; why each vote is important and its impact on
public accountability; and how votes translate into seats.
• Needs a long time and should be done on an ongoing basis.
Civic education
• Larger concept- Involves education on the
structure of government, rights and duties
of a citizen, constitution, judiciary etc.
• Electoral education can be made part and
parcel of the civic education.
• Should be carried out through the schools
and university system and using civil society
organizations.
Experience sharing- Lok Sabha
elections 2009 District Solan
Brief statistics
1. No of assembly constituencies: 5, part of
Shimla PC.
2. Voters: 3,39,365: 1,71,663 Male, 1,57,702
females.
3. Polling stations: 516.
4. Voter turnout: 61.35% in 2009 up from
55.05% in 2004.
Reaching out to Young voters
• College teachers involved in creating awareness
about elector registration in association with
Election staff in various colleges prior to
elections during the summary revision
programme of electoral rolls.
• Voters education awareness programmes were
conducted in the schools, colleges and other
education institutions in which EVMs were
demonstrated among the students and they were
also briefed regarding preparation of electoral
rolls and prevailing forms for enrollment,
deletion and correction of names.
GRAM SABHAS
• Booth Level Officers were directed to attend the
Gram Sabha meetings to read out the relevant
part of voter lists and create awareness among
the people to enroll their names in the voter
lists.
• As per the directions of ECI, Training and
demonstration
programmes
about
the
functioning and operation of EVMs at all the
Gram Sabhas as well as Village to Village were
conducted at ARO level by forming teams of 4-5
officials. Wide publicity about the demonstration
was done prior to date through loud speaker
announcements (Publicity Vans). This was
received very well by rural voters.
COMMUNITY BASED
ORGANISATIONS/ NGOS
• Himachal Pradesh society has a very
well structured NGO/CBO’s at
village level like Mahila mandals,
yuvak mandals, SHG’s.
• These
Community
Based
Organizations / NGOs were made
aware of each and every campaign
related to elections and they played a
vital role in creating awareness
among the general public.
GOVT. OFFICIALS
• Himachal Pradesh has a relatively very
high
percentage
of
government
employees. As such a sizeable chunk of
voters are either govt employees or their
relatives.
• Through a series of meetings/workshops
prior to the elections, they were made
aware of the process of preparation of
electoral rolls and voter registration.
• Demonstration on the operation of EVMs
were conducted in major Govt. Offices
such as DC Office, HPPWD, I&PH, ITI etc.
MASS MEDIA
A slide showing the
programme of EPIC campaign and
electoral registration was flashed
on the local cable network to
inform
the
general
public.
Interviews with Local cable
operators on various aspects of
elections.
FM Radio
FM radio used as to means to apprise the
prospective
voters
about
electoral
registration, election programme, Do’s and
dont’s during the polling, list of identification
documents required during the time of
polling etc. A radio interview was also
conducted to facilitate the people about the
entire process.
PRINT MEDIA
The pamphlets, posters
etc were distributed to Gram
Panchayats,
Mahila
Mandal,
Yuwak Mandals, school and in
colleges.
Electoral
Rolls
verification done by the BLOs
during door to door survey also
creates awareness amongst the
general public.
LOCAL PRESS
Wide publicity of each and
every stage related to elections was
done for creating awareness among
the general public through press
notes published in local newspapers
and by inserting pamphlets and
voting guides in local papers.
GENERAL AWARENESS
Electoral Rolls/ Prevailing forms /
EVMs were also demonstrated to the general public at
prominent places of towns so that one can have a feel of
the functioning of EVMs.
Role of Political parties
Meetings were held regularly with the
Polling Parties. Their Booth Level
Agents were involved to compliment
the BLOs in making the Electoral Rolls
error free and up-to-date and creates
awareness among the voters for
enrollment of their names in the
Electoral Rolls.
• 1077 Toll free help line was used
extensively to guide the general
public regarding various aspects of
the electoral process.
• Sugam centre counters were used
for voter registration effectively.
Role of industrial associations
• Solan is an industrial district having a very large
number of industrial units.
• Many industrial workers though being ordinarily
resident of the area are deprived of their right to
vote due to lack of awareness. This gets
exploited for partisan interests.
• Local industrial associations help was taken to
disseminate literature on voter registration in
various local industrial units.
• Enforcement of local holiday on polling day
under Negotiable instruments act by using the
help of industrial associations.
Learning points- Way
forward
• Voter awareness should be a
continuous process instead of a one
off exercise.
• After the election process sets in,
there is not much time left for this
exercise.
• Involvement of Industrial
associations/ other organizations.
Seminars should be organized at all
the Industrial Units where young
generation is in working class.
Voter’s Education Awareness
Programmes should be conducted on
a regular basis in the senior
secondary schools, colleges and other
Educational Institutions. Electoral
process and EVM awareness should
be included as a part of the
curriculum. Organizing debates and
competitions in schools/ universities
should also be encouraged.
Using posters, slides in
movie halls and SMS to get the
“Please Vote’’ message across.
Mock election process can be
conducted by providing computers
and touch screens kiosks asking
voters to vote.
By
organizing
Nukkad
nataks, puppet shows, individual
discussions, group meetings etc.
By taking help of citizen groups,
Mahila Mandals/ Yuwak Mandals and
NGOs by holding meetings in their local
area, to consider debate and discuss
jointly what are the important issues
before us, which require to be met, and
what are we as citizens looking for.
They can invite the candidates for an
open meeting, and assess their abilities
and their track record.
Thank you