Shillong, July 01: A state wide Special Drive for enrollment of young voters was launched at J. N. Stadium in Shillong on Saturday.
The Special Drive campaign under the theme “Mission Unite – You ‘N’ I towards enrollment” was launched by Meghalaya Chief Secretary, Y. Tsering which aimed at enrolling left out voters in the State with a special focus on first-time electors particularly in the age group of 18-21.
Former Chief Election Commissioner, H.S. Brahma, Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer, F.R. Kharkongor, East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner and District Electoral Officer, Peter S. Dkhar, and senior government officials were also present on the occasion.
More than 2800 students from 120 schools from Shillong city participated in the formation of Mission Unite logo at the playground.
The Meghalaya votes aap was launched, and an election motivational song to encourage young people to enroll was also released. The song was composed by popular local band, Summersault.
During the programme, the former CEC, Brahma administered the voters’ pledge and launched the Meghalaya Votes app. The Meghalaya Votes mobile application has been designed as a G2C mobile application for the benefit of the people of the State catering especially to electorates of the State.
This app will help the voters to search the details in the Electoral Rolls by selecting/entering basic information like District name, Assembly Constituency, name or EPIC number. Using this app, the voters can access their polling station information to enable them to cast their votes at specific polling booth and the app used Google map to guide the voters the direction and distance to reach the polling booth from their current location. The various modules available at present are search polling station, locate your booth, know your MLA, Assembly constituency wise elected candidates and party wise breakup of elected candidates.
Speaking on the occasion, Tsering urged young people to enroll themselves and be part of the electoral process to strengthen the democracy.
He also reminded that India being the largest democratic country in the world, it is the duty and responsibility of each and every citizen to uphold the dignity and democratic election by exercising their franchise during the time of election.
Other highlights of the day includes distribution of EPIC to the newly enrolled voters, distribution of prizes, followed by entertainment programmes.
