Young Voters’ Festival to inspire youth to actively engage in Nov 7 Mizoram polls

Aizawl: Various district administrations in Mizoram are organising ‘Young Voters’ Festivals’ to motivate the youth of the state to actively participate in the November 7 elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly.

Election officials on Monday said that in each of the 11 districts in Mizoram, such festivals are likely to be held for two to three days by the local authorities in association with the organisations.

An election official said that over the course of this festival, various activities and contests such as extempore speech, quiz, declamation contest, reels making contest, selfie contest, hashtag campaign, signature campaign, flyer-making contest, on-the-spot essay writing contest, on-the-spot slogan writing contest, and on-the-spot painting competition would be held.

Highlighting the programs conducted by the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP), the official said that the Election Commission’s intent is to encourage all citizens above the age of 18 to exercise their voting rights.

Additionally, he noted that the EC provides special facilities for elderly citizens and individuals with special needs to ensure that they can cast their votes.

Election officials urged all people, especially the new voters to enjoy the festival, vote, and encourage their friends and families to do the same.

Of Mizoram’s 8,51,895 eligible voters, 50,611 are young voters (18-19 age group), 8,490 are senior citizen voters (80 plus age) and 3,243 are Persons with Disability (PwD) electors.

In Mizoram, over 80 per cent voters cast their votes in most of the elections, with 80.82 per cent of the total of 6,90,860 voters having exercised their franchise in the 2013 Assembly polls while 80.03 per cent of the 7,74,757 voters cast their votes in the 2018 elections.