ELIGIBLE VOTER TALLY AT 960MN; 47% ARE WOMEN

Around 960 million voters in the country will be eligible to vote in the upcoming general elections across 1.2 million polling stations manned by 15 million personnel, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Thursday, giving details of its preparations ahead of the world's largest democratic exercise.

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Of the 960 million eligible voters, a 5.3% increase over 2019's 912 million, 470 million are women, 489.952 million are men and 48,000 are classified as third gender, ECI said. Around 17.3 million voters are aged between 18 and 19, 8.1 million have disabilities, and 17.5 million voters are 80 or older, ECI added. Of the 17.5 million voters above 80 years of age, about 200,000 are above the age of 100.

"Keeping [the faith of voters in us] in mind, ECI assures all voters, stakeholders and political parties that we are committed to providing a very pleasant experience in voting in 2024 and onwards, and also a level playing field during campaigning," said chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar.