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The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Himachal Pradesh, Maneesh Garg, on Saturday informed as compared to the last Assembly elections, the number of voters in the state has increased from 49.88 lakh to 55.25 lakh.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Garg said, "The number of voters this year shows an increase of 10.7 per cent. The number of voters includes 1.93 lakh first-time voters between the ages of 18 and 19 years." "The number of voters who exercised their franchise in the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections (excluding postal ballots of service and election duty voters) was 37.27 lakh. This number increased to 41.60 lakh in 2022 (excluding postal ballot voters), thereby registering an increase of 11.6 per cent," he added. The chief poll officer of Himachal further said, "While the number of voters increased by 5.37 lakh, the number of votes polled increased by 4.33 lakh in this year's Assembly elections." He added that the data further reveals that the voting percentage enrolled since 2017 was nearly at 80.5 per cent in this year's Assembly elections. The chief poll officer added that the enrolment of new voters was largely down to the efforts of the Election Commission to encourage the people of the state to exercise their franchise. "State-wide awareness campaigns under Universal Transparent Elections through Systematic Awareness of Voters (UTSAV) were launched aggressively, which attributed to such an increase. Besides, 2,524 Election Literacy Clubs and 7,881 Chunav Pathshalas were constituted and activated to make the voters aware that 'every Vote counts and no voter is to be left behind'," he added. Polling for 68 assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh was held on November 12, with the state recording a 75.6 per cent turnout, breaking the 2017 record. The results are scheduled to be declared on December 8. (ANI)
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