Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India responding to the wrath of voters whose names were missing from the electoral list, now throws the onus on the public. Reportedly a whopping 26 lakh voters were turned down when they went to exercise their franchise in the Telangana assembly elections on December 7.
The ECI has responded by stating that the responsibility for checking of names and enrollment lies with the voters and the mere fact that they have voted in an earlier election does not mean they will be able to vote in subsequent elections!
In an official statement issued on Monday, the ECI stated: ‘Deletions and inclusions are made as part of voter enrollments as and when a revision of the electoral rolls is undertaken. Objections under Form No.7 are invariably invited from citizens to raise objections within seven days before carrying out deletions. Similarly, voters were required to apply in Form 6 if they want their names to be included.’
With regard to the TS election, the ECI said: ‘The electoral rolls for the just-concluded TS assembly elections were updated only duly taking up an extensive exercise as per the guidelines issued by the ECI. They were published on November 19 with the inclusion of the supplementary list. The elector rolls, which were used for the polling, contained 2,80,64,684 voters as compared to 2,61,36,776 voters in the draft rolls published on December 10th. It is estimated that approximately 26 lakhs voters have been enrolled during the exercise.’
The responsibility for checking of names and enrollment if required lies with the voters and the mere fact that they have voted in the earlier election does not entitle them to vote in subsequent elections, said the ECI.
The ECI says it provided time, opportunity and scope to citizens to register their grievances regarding deletions of their names, if any, through three methods:
Voters could have checked if their names were on the rolls through the Telangana chief electoral officer’s website ceo.telangana.gov.in. Or, they could have raised an objection by responding to the enrolling authorities by filling in the prescribed form (Form-7). The office of the Chief Electoral Officer also carried out a campaign called ‘Check Your Vote’ from October 26 to November 5, 2018.
“Some voters have reported that their names were not included in the voters’ list in spite of the fact that they had voted in the last General Election held in 2014. They are informed that they are required to file an application in Form-6 either online through the National Voter Service Portal or physically to their BLO/ERO. The responsibility for checking of names and enrollment if required lies with the voters and the mere fact that they have voted in the earlier election does not entitle them to vote in subsequent elections,” said the ECI.
The CEO’s office will be carrying out a revision of the electoral list from December 26 for the parliamentary elections.
