Source
Money life
http://www.moneylife.in/article/adr-and-facebook-to-provide-info-about-candidates-through-mobile/35295.html
Date
City
New Delhi
This feature will allow citizens to access information about candidates in the election more easily and enable them to make an informed choice
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said it partnered with Facebook to provide citizens the up-to-date candidates’ information for the upcoming State Assembly Elections and Lok Sabha Elections to help them make an informed choice. Voters will now be able to access election candidates’ criminal, financial, educational and professional information directly on their mobile via Facebook using USSD technology. USSD or unstructuredsupplementary service data is a global system for mobile (GSM) communication technology used to send text between a mobile phone and an application program in the network.
"This initiative with Facebook will allow us to expand our reach. Voters will be able to know the poll worthiness of candidates -- their educational, criminal and financial information -- at their fingertips and choose wisely. Simply voting in an uninformed manner is not enough, citizens needed to make an informed choice,” said Prof Trilochan Sastry, founder and trustee of ADR.
Ankhi Das, Director of Public Policy, Facebook India, said, “Over 82 million Indian citizens access Facebook regularly, and an increasing number of users access the platform on mobile. Our goal is to enable citizens to get involved in issues of governance."
How to access the information on election candidates for free-
Access to information has never been simpler, faster and cheaper -- all users have to do is dial *325# from their mobile to access Facebook and select the election menu (option 6) or directly dial *325*35# to access the election menu for no charge.