The Election Commission is mulling a proposal to increase the polling hours during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in light of a jump in the cumulative number of voters in the country and the trend of bigger turnout at recent elections.

According to highly-placed sources, the EC is working on an increased polling time schedule and is likely to decide on the matter in a day or so. The full commission comprising Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath and Election Commissioners HS Brahma and Nasim Zaidi today discussed the issue with top poll officials and are learnt to have given the go-ahead to the proposal.

While the polling duration currently is of nine hours, EC is seeking an increase in the same by an hour. EC feels that since the elections will be held in summer, more electors will turn up to vote towards the evening when the weather cools.

That would likely lead to long queues at polling stations as voting draws to a close.