Over 90 percent first-time eligible voters to exercise their franchise in LS polls: Twitter India

Over 90 percent of eligible first-time voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, a Twitter India survey released Wednesday stated. [caption id=“attachment_4335359” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] The survey was conducted as part of Twitter’s youth engagement initiative #PowerOf18, from September to October 2018, with 4,274 people between the age of 18 and 35 participating. The Twitter survey also said 72 percent of the first-time voters surveyed believed they are contributing to public debate and discourse by posting on the social media platform. Almost 55 percent also said that they would use Twitter to raise support for a movement and about 54 percent said they would use the micro-blogging site to express their opinion, News18 reported. According to  Business Line, after the survey was conducted, over 80 percent of first-time voters said that they would use social media to stay updated with current affairs in India and overseas. According to the Election Commission (EC), nearly 1.5 crore first-time voters will exercise their franchise. The seven-phased general elections have been scheduled to start from 11 April and will go on till 19 May.