Sobhapati Samom
IMPHAL, July 19 – Manipur has become the first State in the country to have the popular social networking website Facebook as a new platform to woo Manipur’s young voters for the forthcoming Assembly election which is scheduled early next year.The State’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) PC Lamkungba formally opened a Facebook account ‘Ceo Manipur’ here on Monday last to reach out to young voters in the State and also to get their enthusiastic participation in the coming elections.
“We will be using it as an interactive forum with young voters and educate them on election processes”, Lamkunga said, “We will also upload easy to learn election materials in this forum.”
The easy to learn election materials include the enrolment in photo electoral rolls and their revisions, electors photo identity card programme, use of electronic voting machine and importance of participation in elections besides the gist of directions/instructions received from the Election Commission of India and subsequent steps by CEO office.
The queries relating to elections will also be clarified/answered by State CEO office as part of it’s endeavour towards systematic voters education and electoral participation (Sveep) programme.
“So the Facebook users are invited to get themselves enthused by elections and be ready to vote for a greater democracy,” K Bono, assistant chief electoral officer said. “And also to increase the turnout of voters.” The polling turnout at the recent Konthoujam by-poll reached a remarkable 90 per cent against 83 per cent in the last Assembly election.
