Youngsters of the age of 17 and plus can apply in advance to enrol as voters when they turn 18, the Election Commission (EC) announced on Thursday.
“17+-year-old youngsters can now apply in advance for having their names enrolled in the Voters list and not necessarily have to await the pre-requisite criterion of attaining the age of 18 years on 1st January of a year,” the commission said in a statement.
The election commission has already managed to induct 1,736,181 (1.7 million) new voters between the ages of 18-19, people familiar with the matter said. Last year, 14,526,678 (14.5 million) new voters were added to the list.
The eligible youngsters can be registered in the next quarter of the year in which they have attained the qualifying age of 18 years.
Once the new voters are registered, they will be issued Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC).
“For the current round of annual revision of electoral roll, 2023, any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by April 1, July 1 and October 1 of 2023 can also submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of electoral roll,” the statement said.