National Voters’ Day

 

For: Preliminary

Topics covered:

• About the National Voters’ day- theme, objectives & significance
• About Election Commission of India
• About Suffrage, Voting Rights in India

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News Flash

The 10th National Voters’ Day (NVD) is celebrated on the 25th of January 2020. The Day is celebrated on 25th January every year since 2011.

The theme for NVD-2020 is ‘Electoral Literacy for Stronger Democracy. The theme sets the tone for year-long activities with focus on voter education and renewal of citizens’ faith in the electoral process.

The Day is celebrated to mark the Foundation day of Election Commission of India, which was established on 25th January 1950.

 

Election Commission of India

• The Election Commission of India is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes in India at the national, state and district levels.
• The Election Commission operates under the authority of the Constitution per Article 324 and subsequently enacted Representation of the People Act.
• Being a constitutional authority, Election Commission is amongst the few institutions which function with both autonomy and freedom, along with the country’s higher judiciary, the Union Public Service Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

 

Voting Rights in India

Since 1950, all adult citizens are recognized by the Constitution of India, irrespective of race, gender or religion for voting in the Republic of India. Thus, India has a concept of “universal suffrage”.

Universal suffrage is provided in Article 326 of the Constitution of India. The 61st Amendment Act, 1988 by amendment of Article 326, lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 years. This amendment was done according to the provisions of Article 368 that required ‘special majority’ of the Parliament and ratification by at least one half of the State Legislatures.

 

Suffrage

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections. Suffrage is often conceived in terms of elections for representatives.

 

Source: News on Air

 

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