To connect with youngsters, EC takes social media way

Bhopal: In a bid to connect with voters ahead of Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is now taking the social media route.
Joint chief electoral officer held a live session on social media site Facebook, on Monday, which was shared by several hundred users. More than 166 users asked questions during the half an hour live session that started at around 5 pm.However, views of the live video were more than 3200.
“Our main objective was to reach out to the young voters and also the ones who use smart phones. So that their basic questions could be answered and they can be made more aware about the norms.Answering the basic questions of the voters directly helps solve their problems,” joint chief electoral officer Abhijeet Agarwal told TOI.
The users asked number of questions, including procedure of getting their names enrolled in the voter list, how to find the exact location of the polling booth. Some of them also sought if there is any way people can vote from their current city instead of the place they are registered in.
As many as166 comments posted by the employees working for e-governance urged the EC to increase their honorarium for working in elections.
Some of the users also took a dig at the electoral officials like one of the users wrote that ink should be put properly painted on the fingers of the voters instead of marking patches.
Officer Agarwal said that more such live sessions will be conducted to inform voters about the instructions of ECI and to address their queries.
“District election officers are also reaching out to the voters through social media. Earlier these live sessions have been held by Anuppur and Harda collectors. Narsinghpur and Morena collectors are likely to conduct the same soon,” he added.