The Election Commission (EC) announced on Friday that the upcoming General Elections will have the largest electorate yet, with 96.88 crore registered voters. It also added over two crore youth electors in the age group of 18 to 29 years have been added in the voters’ list.
After several months of thorough Special Summary Revision 2024 excercise and ahead of the General Elections 2024, the Election Commission of India has released the voter lists in all States/Union Territories nationwide, based on January 1, 2024, as the qualifying date.
“This also included the successful completion of the revision of electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, following the delimitation of constituencies. The endeavour, undertaken with meticulous planning, coordination and participation of political parties has yielded noteworthy achievements in terms of inclusivity, health and purity of the electoral rolls,” the EC stated.
In the meantime, the Election Commission reported an increase in the gender ratio from 940 in 2023 to 948 in 2024. The Commission has prioritized the accuracy and integrity of the Electoral Roll, as well as transparency in the process of revising voter lists. It’s worth noting that Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar conducted the first-ever press conference in Pune during the initiation of the Special Summary Revision Exercise in November 2022.
He elaborated on the different steps involved in updating the voter lists, highlighting the involvement of political parties at each stage of the process.
Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that there has been a rise in female voter registrations, indicating a focused endeavor to achieve gender equality and inclusivity within the electoral system.
“The Electoral Roll gender ratio has surged positively, indicating the growing role of women in shaping the democratic fabric of the nation. Over 2.63 crore new electors have been included in the electoral roll, out of which around 1.41 crore are female electors which surpassed the newly enrolled male voters (~ 1.22 crore) by over 15 per cent,” it poll body said.
Special endeavours have been undertaken to achieve 100 per cent registration of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG), making the electoral rolls the most inclusive to date, it added.
According to the Election Commission, after thorough house-to-house verification, names of 1,65,76,654 deceased, permanently shifted, and duplicate electors have been deleted from the electoral rolls.
“This comprehensive cleanup ensures the integrity and purity of the electoral process. It includes 67,82,642 dead voters, 75,11,128 permanently shifted/absent voters and 22,05,685 duplicate voters,” it added.