ECI permits citizens above 17 years to enrol for voter cards in advance
The newly modified forms, which are simpler and more user-friendly, will go into effect on August 1, 2022.
FollowThe Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Thursday that young people over the age of 17 can now apply in advance to have their names added to the voter's list.
"17+-year-old youngsters can now apply in advance to have their names enrolled in the Voter's list and not necessarily have to wait for the pre-requisite criterion of attaining the age of 18 years on January 1 of a year," the ECI said.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey have directed CEOs/EROs/AEROs of all states to devise tech-enabled solutions to allow youth to file advance applications with reference to three subsequent qualifying dates, April 1, July 1, and October 1, rather than just January 1.
"The Electoral Roll will be updated quarterly, and eligible young people can be registered in the next quarter of the year in which they have reached the qualifying age of 18," the election body stated.
According to the ECI, in the current round of annual revision of the electoral roll, 2023, any citizen reaching the age of 18 by April 1, July 1, or October 1, 2023, can also submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draught publication of the electoral roll.
According to current policy, revision of electoral rolls with reference to January 1 of the following year as the qualifying date was usually done in the later part of each year in all States/UTs (normally in the last quarter of a year), so that final publication of the electoral rolls occurs in the first week of January of the succeeding year.
As a result, many young people who turned 18 after January 1 had to wait until the next year's Special Summary Revision for enrolment and could not vote in the interim elections, according to the ECI.
According to the poll body, the newly modified forms, which are simpler and more user-friendly, will go into effect on August 1, 2022.
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