Migration, political narrative, wedding season causes of low voter turnout in LS 2024
Thursday, 02 MAY 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Experts from various sectors have attributed the low voter turnout during the Lok Sabha elections 2024 in Uttarakhand to several factors like migration, a one-sided political narrative that led to voter disengagement, voting dates coinciding with several wedding ceremonies and missing names of voters from the voter’s list. This was opined by several speakers in the Round Table Dialogue organised by the Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundation on the topic- “Why is Uttarakhand facing a decline in voter turnout?” The founder of the foundation Anoop Nautiyal said that Uttarakhand ranked 19th among 21 states and union territories in the first phase of voting. The State recorded a significantly low voter turnout of 57.22 per cent. In this election, there was a noticeable gap between the plains and the mountainous regions regarding voter turnout trends. Comparatively higher voter turnout was observed in plain seats like Haridwar and Nainital while general apathy towards voting was noted in hilly regions such as Almora, Garhwal, and Tehri. Out of the 70 assembly constituencies in the State, 18 constituencies in the mountainous region had a voter turnout of less than 50 per cent. This is concerning from a national security perspective for a border state like Uttarakhand, Nautiyal said. A senior journalist Jay Singh Rawat stated that this time, the dates of voting coincided with wedding ceremonies which may have contributed to the low voter turnout. Moreover, complaints about essential amenities such as roads were not addressed by the authorities in several mountainous areas that possibly resulted in unsatisfied voters. He also suggested that the disappointment of people with major political parties and leaders might be a reason for low voter turnout. According to research scholar Roli Pandey, migration is the main reason for low voter turnout as a large number of youth in Uttarakhand work in hotels and resorts in the plains. Due to the voting taking place on Friday and the weekend being three days long, hotels and resorts were already fully booked. As a result, those youth couldn’t get leave to vote. The deputy director of the Information department Ravi Bijarniya said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had made extensive efforts to increase voter turnout in Uttarakhand but it still fell short of its target. However, he pointed out that this trend of low voter turnout was observed throughout the country during the first two phases of the election. Several experts suggested that the public should be offered services like free rides to the polling stations. The ECI should also consider expanding the facility of remote voting and ensuring robust coverage of the voter list to encourage more people to vote, they added.
