Shillong: The Election Commission plans to felicitate 133 millennium voters of Meghalaya on National Voters Day on January 25.
This was announced by F R Kharkongor, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer who explained the millennium voters as those who were born on January 1 in 2000. They completed 18 years, the voting age in India, on January 1 this year.
Meghalaya, a northeastern Indian state, is preparing to elect its legislative assembly in the first quarter of this year. The current assembly’s term ends on March 6.
The Election Commission had set January 1, 2000 as the cutoff date for this year’s electoral process, Kharkongor said.
The election officer said the 133 millennium voters from the state were among the 74,000 plus millennium voters identified nationwide.
He said the program on January 25 will welcome the new voters into the democratic process of the country and given their voters identity cards.
The commission has selected Millenium Grace Marwein, a girl from South West Khasi Hills district, as one of the icons of the election department in the state for this year’s election preparation.
She will get a souvenir from the commission along with her voter ID card during the National Voters Day celebration.
Kharkongor said the election department in the state, in consultation with the district health and medical officers and the municipal boards, had obtained the list of the 133 people who were born on the first day of 2000, and started looking for them.
They were located by January 10 and their names were registered with the Election Commission.
Kharkongor said the 133 will get the opportunity to cast their voters first time this year.
In the final electoral roll of the state, published on January 10, the names of 1,830,104 voters of the three million plus citizens, including 923,848 female voters, were enlisted after looking thoroughly into claims and objections.
(Source: easternmirrornagaland.com)