With the vision to attract people, particularly youths and students, to the upcoming assembly election and encourage them to exercise their franchise in the electoral process, the Cachar district administration launched an application “Vote-Ji” on Friday. It is a voter-based app under SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation) campaign of the Cachar district for the ongoing Assam Assembly Election, 2021.

The programme was held in this connection at Cachar Deputy Commissioner’s office in Silchar on Friday. The app was officially launched in presence of Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli and assistant commissioner Vibhor Aggarwal.

Sharing her reaction, Jalli said “today’s youths always use mobile phones, but do not show interest to vote in elections. The main objective of launching the app is to encourage the youths for exercising their franchise in the ensuing assembly election”.

She said “the app has various details related to this year’s election. Besides, people can take part in quiz contests, participate in events, access election related materials and earn game points. The top leaders of the app will be felicitated by the district administration after the election” she added.

About the election, the DC said “the number of fresh voters in Cachar this year is 35,894 out of which 18,000 are males and 17,894 are females. 5000 persons have applied for postal ballots. 80 teams have been formed to verify the applications. Postal ballots will be arranged for 4200 service voters, she quipped.

Assistant Commissioner Vibhor Aggarwal said the app can be installed from Google Play Store or Apple Store. The app will be helpful in encouraging young people towards the election, he added.

It is pertinent to mention here that app is aimed at voter awareness and information dissemination while making the interface interesting and fun at the same time. The app is based on a point-based gamification system, where on completing various tasks like quiz, attending election-related events, visiting polling booths and uploading selfie etc. the user will receive points. Those users with the highest points will receive felicitation and cash prizes by District Administration, Cachar.

Normally, the information available online for voters while in abundant amount is often unappealing to young voters. Hence, the idea was to ensure that voters have the basic information necessary to become a more informed voter, while at the same time access it through an interesting interface.

The app has the mascot of the Cachar District Administration’s SVEEP campaign, “MISHTI” as the guide for the users. The look of the loading screen itself shows MISHTI going on an adventure and subsequently, MISHTI gives the introduction of the app.

The voters can also choose avatars for their profile which shows MISHTI and her male counterpart, “MISHTI” in different local attires celebrating the diversity of the Cachar district that includes Manipuri, Bengali, Assamese etc. After registration of the user, the home screen of the app shows various features which the users can access. These features include notification of upcoming election related events where the voters can visit, click a selfie and earn rewards.  Features also include links to District Administration’s SVEEP social media pages, youtube links, a Voter Information Portal, leaderboard etc.

The app is dynamic in nature which pertains to the new events and features constantly being added to the app. Any new activity of District Administration in 2021 Assam Assembly Elections will be updated in the app. Voters can go to the google play store and search for “Vote-Ji” or directly go to the following link. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coolpritam.eci.