EC keen on making more women vote in Rajasthan

It will keep a tab on paid news during coming Assembly elections

The Election Commission will make targeted efforts to increase women’s participation in the coming Assembly elections in Rajasthan. Their turnout has historically been quite low, Director-General Akshay Raut said here on Sunday.

The EC would keep a watch on paid news through the three-tier system of Media Certification and Monitoring Committees. The system was first used in the Bihar Assembly elections in 2010 and would be seen in action in Rajasthan for the first time during the coming elections.

The committees — which function at the district, State and national levels — would screen and then approve political advertisements, said Mr. Raut.

“We held a two-hour videoconference with all District Election Officers today [on Sunday] and specifically instructed them to keep a strict watch over paid news,” he said.

To increase voter participation, the commission had identified polling stations based on different permutations and combinations of voter participation and literacy rates.

Districts would be categorised as “high literacy-high voting,” “low literacy-low voting,” “high literacy-low voting,” and “low literacy-high voting.”

Targeted interventions would be made with programmes such as Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) to increase voter participation.