Chennai: Public election department has formed special committees comprising students to study the reasons for low voter turnout in Tamil Nadu during the recently concluded assembly polls.
The poll percentage in urban areas and tier one cities is a disappointment for the election department. Despite social media campaign and events through brand ambassadors, the poll percentage is not encouraging in cities like Chennai and Coimbatore.
Chief electoral officer Rajesh Lakhoni has directed all district collectors to examine the polling booths that recorded low voters turn out. All the cities in TN had witnessed low poll percentage, compared with rural areas such as Dharmapuri and Kanyakumari, public election sources said. When contacted, additional chief electoral officer A. Sivagnanam said the booths that had received low polling has been identified in all assembly constituencies.
Special committees to be finalised soon will ascertain the factors that lead to low polling and the department had also asked suggestions from public to achieve 100 per cent polling in the elections to come.
Meanwhile, election sources maintained that the polling date for the TN constituencies Aravakurichi and Thanjavur, (elections suspended due to distribution of cash for votes) and the Thiruparankundram by poll due to demise of MLA S M Seenivel are expected by next month. "Several senior officers with the election commission of India are out of station and are expected only by the end of this month and the election dates are expected only after that," a source said.
