In a first, female voters surpass male electors in Telangana

Hyderabad: For the first time, eligible female voters have surpassed male electors in Telangana.

“The gender ratio of female to male voters is 1002: 1000,” said State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj while addressing the media.

The CEO also spoke about the first-time home voting facility being offered to senior citizens aged 80 years and above and also for persons with disabilities (PwD) voters, which had commenced on Tuesday (November 21) and would continue for a week. Within the first two days, around 9,386 senior citizen voters and 5,022 PwD electors had used the home voting facility. There are 4,40,371 senior-citizen voters (80 plus) and 5,06,921 PwD voters in the state, who can vote from their homes for the first time.

Further, young voters and first-time voters (18 and 19 years of age) comprise 9,99,667 electors. The total number of voters is 3,26, 02,799 plus 15,406 service voters. “EPIC (Electors Photo Identification Cards) are being printed and distributed to eligible voters. Already, around 51 lakh EPIC cards have been distributed. “Around 86 % of voters have been given Voter Information Slips (VIS) that is around 2.81 crore VIS. The remaining VIS will be distributed within a couple of days,” said CEO Vikas Raj.

The CEO also spoke on poll preparedness for D-Day, which is on November 30, 2023. “There are three types of state-level special observers including 67 general observers, 39 police observers, and 60 expenditure observers. A total of 35,655 polling stations (PS) in the state have been established including 299 auxiliary polling stations. To attract all categories of voters, the polling stations are categorized as model PS, women-run PS, PwD-run PS, and youth-run PS,” the CEO said.

Regarding the use of the Subidha app by political parties, the CEO said that so far they have received 37,424 permission requests including using street corners for road shows and use of loudspeakers in meetings. As per the CEO's office, a total of 6,648 people have used the cVigil app for various complaints related to poll code violations and other non-relevant complaints. A total of 10, 106 FIRs have been filed against various persons based on the complaints. Most of the complaints are related to violations of the Model Code of Conduct, poll-related violence, inducement, misuse of government vehicles and loudspeakers, etc. The cumulative value of seizures so far (till November 22) including cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals, and freebies has been worth over Rs 6,69,77,56,258 crore, the CEO said.