Election Commission has kicked-off preparations for General Elections due early in 2014 by issuing detailed instructions to all chief electoral officers to ensure error-free electoral rolls.
A day after the Chief Election Commissioner hinted that lok Sabha polls could be held in March 2014 in multiple phases, the letter issued by the EC asked all CEOs to weed out ineligible voters, duplicates, and repetitions occurring in the electoral rolls. At the same time, it instructed the State poll chiefs to equally ensure all eligible voters are included.
“In view of the fact the summary revision of electoral rolls, 2014, is going on in most of the States and also in view of the forthcoming General Elections to lok Sabha, the Commission has decided to reiterate and issue comprehensive instructions on preparation of electoral rolls,” the EC letter stated.
The instructions became necessary after the recent polls in Delhi witnessed massive errors with thousands of voters unable to vote as the electoral rolls did not contain their names. The letter by CEC termed error-free electoral rolls as the “cornerstone of free and fair polls” in view of the forthcoming polls to elect the 16th lok Sabha.
The Commission noted with concern, “We have received complaints from time to time that names of eligible electors are wrongly deleted from the electoral rolls.” Besides, it said, “Complaints are also received on poll day that electors having EPICs are denied the right to vote because their names were wrongly deleted from the rolls. Such instances should never be allowed to occur.”
Besides CEOs, the instruction also appealed to district electoral officers, returning officers and assistant ROs to ensure these instructions are followed in letter and spirit so that electoral rolls are in “perfect shape and are completely free from errors,” the EC letter said.
The Commission was particular about ensuring all entries pertaining to the name, age, surname, address and other details of voters are entered correctly in the rolls. The letter also sought to address wrongful deletions of voters from rolls.
The poll body asked the CEOs to ensure that more and more new voters are enrolled through online registration and asked them to put in place such online mechanism in their states soon. The Commission directed all high-level officers under it, including principal secretaries, secretaries and under secretaries in charge of zonal sections, to visit the states during the course of the ongoing summary revision and submit a report to it.
EC further asked its officers to work on “de-duplication” across boundaries of States. “Data should be pooled for de-duplication of electoral rolls across State boundaries.” It cited the example of Delhi to suggest de-duplication must not be done with data pooled from NCR regions, including Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Gurgaon.