Mysuru:  Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Practice (SVEEP), together with Election Literacy Club, had organised an awareness programme on voting at D. Banumaiah College here yesterday.

Speaking on the occasion, Zilla Panchayat (ZP) CEO P. Shivashankar asked youth who have completed 18 years to get their names enrolled in the voters list and participate enthusiastically in the elections. He further said that voting was a right and duty of every Indian citizen.

Continuing, Shivashankar observed that the educated people were distancing from the voting process. Justifying his observation, the CEO recalled that in the 2013 Assembly election, the voting percentage in the district was 76 while it was just 56 in Mysuru city. He opined that if the voter finds none of the contesting candidates was worth selection, the franchise can still be exercised by choosing the option NOTA (None Of The Above).

Going further, Shivashankar said that going by the Supreme Court instruction VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines were being used in conjunction with EVMs (Electronic Voting Machine) which confirms the candidate to whom the vote has been cast. He further said that 40% of the voters in the State were in the age group of 18 to 35 years.

He pointed out that political parties who obtain just 35% of the votes may come to power which emphasises the importance of percentage of voting to authenticate the efficacy and efficiency of voting process.

District Adult Education Officer Krishna administered the oath to participating students on voting.