Manipur election office goes social networking
Imphal, July 12 : Manipur chief electoral officer P.C. Lawmkunga today opened an official Facebook account to reach out to young voters and encourage them to participate in electoral process.
The account, under the name CEO Manipur will be used as an interactive forum for young voters.
Lawmkunga updated his status message immediately after he first logged in.
“Our goal is to attract maximum number of voters to the polling booths. In the 2007 Assembly elections, the poll percentage was 83. In the February bypolls in Konthoujam Assembly constituency (in Imphal West district) the poll percentage was nearly 90,” he said.
He said Manipur has 1,619,000 voters and the networking site was used to encourage all the registered voters to participate in the electoral process in the next Assembly election.
He said voters using this networking site can lodge their complaint on Facebook and the department would attend to the complaints promptly.
Officials at the state election office said the educated youths were unconcerned about the democratic exercise.
Apart from the Facebook account, call centres will also be opened at all the nine districts where voters can make toll free calls to register their grievances.
“We are in the process of procuring computer systems. These call centres are to address public grievances,” he said.
Another initiative taken by the electoral officer is to get mapping of all the 20,195 polling stations across the state with the help of Manipur Remote Sensing Centre. So far mapping of booths in 19 of the 60 Assembly constituencies have been completed.
The electoral officer also plans to hold seminars and workshops for voters from all walks of life. Moreover, panel discussions will be aired on local AIR station, DDK Imphal and ISTV, a private TV channel, in August and September.