CEC favours use of Facebook to mobilise young voters

Chief election commissioner SY Quraishi today favoured the use of Facebook to mobilise the young voters of the country.

Chief election commissioner SY Quraishi on Tuesday favoured the use of Facebook to mobilise the young voters of the country.

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"About 20 million young voters would come to the electoral fold from this year. It is important to mobilise them as from this year National Voters Day would be observed on January 25," said Quaraishi, who was here to address the zonal symposium "Sharing Best Electoral Practices", along with election commissioners VS Sampath and MS Brahma.

Electoral officers from West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhatisgarh attended the zonal symposium.

Quraishi said that the Election Commission's page on Facebook would be interactive and encourage the young people to come up with suggestions for electoral reforms.

The CEC also said that there were plans to introduce some innovative electoral practices, which were suggested by electoral officers at the symposium. The electoral officers at the local level pioneered some of the innovative measures.

The measures include introduction of devises to restrict the movement of unauthorised vehicles during elections, arrangements for mobilising displaced persons to the polling booths, use of satellite photos to map the movement of the troops and issuance of identity slips to voters just before the elections.

"We have asked the chief electoral officers of the states to implement these measures," he said.

Quraishi was also critical of the practice of 'paid news' in the recent years. "We will be examining the issue of deception in the context of paid news," he said. He added that they have taken action against some candidates and journalists indulging in the unethical practice.