The lower voter turnout in the Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry Assembly elections of 2016 as compared to 2011 is baffling. It appears the Election Commission of India as well as society’s rigorous push for greater public participation in voting is running into a wall of reluctance, if not quite apathy, on the part of voters. A plethora of reasons is being trotted out by onlookers who see voter indifference, lack of a wave for or against governments, polls during summer holidays, EC inefficiency in updating the rolls, and sheer lack of will on the part of all the young voters to register themselves to vote.
Even more surprising is the greater urban apathy to the 2016 election, as particularly evidenced in Chennai where the abysmal 60 per cent turnout was a mirror image of the Lok Sabha poll of 2014 when Bengaluru notched up very similar figures. While the greater urbanisation of most constituencies in India and bigger turnouts there were said to have favoured change in 2014, the performances of two major metropolitan centres in the south pose a challenge to politicians as well as the agencies entrusted with running the voting process.
Rain in Tamil Nadu on polling day may have had contributed to lower voter turnout. Initial analysis of poll booth behaviour seems to indicate that the emerging generation has not taken wholeheartedly to the thrill of a debut vote. In India, more and more youth are becoming eligible to vote. A foolproof online voting system may be decades away and populous India is not the place for compulsory voting, which is why expertise in analysing and solving the riddle is awaited.
