New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday has come up with the special campaign to remind eligible voters to enrol themselves using Facebook from this Saturday.
According to an official statement, the drive is to ensure no voter has been left behind with a special focus on first time electors.
With over 180 million (18 crore) people in India on Facebook, the ‘Register Now’ button has been envisaged to encourage Indian citizens to register themselves with ECI, the statement said.
In collaboration with Facebook, a notification of the “voter registration reminder” will be sent to people on who are eligible to vote.
The reminder will be sent out in 13 Indian languages -- English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Assamese, Marathi and Oriya.
This being the first of its kind nation wide voting awareness drive, the ECI earlier in 2016 and 2017 had similar initiatives at state level during their respective state elections.
Urging all eligible citizens to enrol and vote, Chief Election Commissioner Dr Nasim Zaidi said: “I am sure this initiative will strengthen ECI’s enrolment campaign and encourage future voters to participate in the electoral proces and become responsible citizens of India.”
Meanwhile, Facebook’s Public Policy Director for India, South and Central Asia Ankhi Das said, “People use Facebook to learn, talk and get involved with issues that matter to them. We want to build engagements that support this type of civic engagement - on Election Day and every day”.
She said, “We believe that democracies are stronger when more people are engaged - that's why we are encouraging everyone who is eligible to register to vote and connecting them with resources.”
From 1st of July, 2017, by clicking on the “Register Now" button on Facebook, people will be directed to the National Voters’ Services Portal (www.nvsp.in) which will guide them through the registration process.
