Bhubaneswar, Jan 6 (IANS): The Odisha State Election Commission on Friday released the final voter list for the upcoming general elections.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nikunja Bihari Dhal said at a press conference here that 12, 97,954 new electors will exercise their franchise for the first time in the general elections ahead.

Dhal said that the state Election Commission has been putting stress on adding young and women voters in the list. "During the special Summary Revision Period, we have added 12,97,954 new voters in the electoral roll. As many as 4, 76,969 of the total 12, 97,954 electors added are young electors while 7,16,807 voters have been expunged from the electoral roll for various reasons," said Dhal.

Meanwhile, the names of several voters have been deleted for various reasons which include 3,75,938 voters expunged from electoral roll following death.

Similarly, 65,858 voters deleted from the list whose names repeated in the same constituency and booth areas.

The net addition in the final electoral roll is 5,81,147.

He said that during publication of the draft electoral roll in October last year the total voter number was over 3,26,55,000 which has risen to around 3,32,36,000 registering an increase of 1.78 per cent.

The number of male voters is 1.68 crore while the female voters number is 1.63 crore.

Meanwhile, the authorities at the booth level have implanted corrections and modifications in 4,22,638 voter ID cards during special campaigns in November last year. "The two aspects on which we have put special focus include increasing the enrolment of young electors and to improve gender ratio through increasing women electors. When we published the Draft on October 27 last year, our gender ratio was 963 women voters per 1000 male that has been increased to 972 now which is the highest in the last five years. The ratio in the voter list finalised after the special summary in 2019 was 946 and now it has increased to 972," Dhal added.