Participation of voters in State decreasing in last two LS polls
Sunday, 21 April 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The dismal voter turnout in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 in Uttarakhand shows that all the efforts of the election commission and the civil society to increase the voter turnout in the State have proved to be a failure. A day after the end of the polling, the EC data shows that 55.89 per cent of total 83,21,201 voters turned out to cast their votes in Uttarakhand. It means that about 35 lakh voters did not vote in the hustings to elect their Member of Parliament (MP). It is pertinent to mention here that the EC had taken a target of 75 per cent voter turnout in the LS elections -2024 and had undertaken a massive campaign to achieve this. However the poor response by the voters gave a setback to the plan of achieving a high voter turnout. In fact the turnout was much less than the turnouts reported in the last two LS elections. In the LS election-2019, a turnout of 61.88 per cent was reported which means that about six per cent less people came out to vote this time. What is a matter of concern is the fact that the voter turnout is continuing to decrease in the State from the last two LS elections despite the efforts of the EC. In the LS election of 2014, 62.15 per cent voters came out to vote which is the highest ever in the LS elections in the State.
The experts point out that the low turnout indicates the disinterest of the people in the governance which is not a good sign for democracy and society. One of the reasons for less voter turnout in the mountainous parts of the State is the migration of people to cities. Reasons such as lack of enthusiasm in the workers of the political parties and ongoing marriage season in the State are also being attributed for less voter turnout this time.
The founder of Social Development for Communities (SDC) foundation, Anoop Nautiyal told The Pioneer that in percentile terms there is a 9.68 per cent drop in turnout this time as compared with 2019. He listed migration and distant polling booths as causes for low voter turnout in mountainous areas of the State. Nautiyal added that the political parties also failed to address relevant issues in the campaign due to which the voters became disinterested in voting. “ The campaign of the parties appeared more in the Online mode than on the ground. The strict guidelines of the Election Commission also took the sheen off the campaign which became lacklustre,’’ he said.
Nautiyal added that marriage season, harvesting season and long weekend also drove many voters away from the polling booths.
