'Non-Delhi defence personnel now in electoral list'
New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) The process of registering eligible voters in the electoral list of the capital's Delhi cantonment area, where most of the defence personnel reside following official postings, has been completed, the Election Commission said here Monday.
Most of these people belong to other places but are residing in Delhi due to official postings.
"This has been done to woo the participation of the defence personnel during the elections," Vijay Dev, chief electoral officer of Delhi, told IANS.
"In every Delhi assembly elections it's seen that the Delhiites, who are in defence services, do not cast their vote despite having the privilege of casting their vote via post."
Terming the participation of defence personnel in elections as "immensely important", Dev said: "As all these defence personnel are being deployed to far off places in the country, we came up with the idea of registering all other defence personnel staying in the Delhi cantonment area of the national capital."
Stating that this initiative has been tried for the first time, the election official said: "We hope that this will increase the voters' turnout in the coming elections."
"Though, the enrolling process has been completed, we hope that all the voters come ahead to vote and do not abstain from voting."
"Even if they do not want to vote for any of the candidate, our volunteers are trying their best to tell them about None Of The Above (NOTA) provision that allows them to reject all the candidates contesting elections in the constituency," the official added.