
The Election Commission of India (ECI) declared on Friday that an impressive 96.88 crore individuals have enrolled to cast their votes for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections in 2024. These statistics underscore significant changes in voter demographics and engagement levels. With a historic 96.88 crore electors registered nationwide, reflecting a noteworthy 6% rise from 2019, there’s a clear surge in citizen participation in the democratic process.
An especially notable development is the achievement where female voter registrations have outnumbered those of male voters during SSR 2024, signaling a positive shift towards gender equality in political involvement. Moreover, the inclusion of over 2 crore young voters aged 18-29 years indicates a burgeoning interest and active participation of the youth in shaping the country’s future through the electoral system.
Amid rising concerns over the integrity of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the Election Commission has issued a clarification, asserting that EVMs do not function on an operating system (OS). Instead, the commission underscores that EVMs utilize firmware, comprising machine-level instructions stored in a one-time-programmed (OTP) memory, thus ruling out any potential for reprogramming.
Furthermore, the Election Commission sheds light on the procedure for integrating candidate names and symbols into the ballot box. It discloses that symbols are uploaded into a Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) in the presence of contesting candidates or their representatives. This loading process is facilitated through a symbol loading application based on the Windows operating system. Notably, this application is developed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), both Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) falling under the jurisdiction of the defense ministry and the atomic energy department.