1.8 lakh voters dropped from Meghalaya's draft roll after SIR exercise

Around 1.8 lakh electors have been excluded from Meghalaya's draft electoral roll published on Wednesday after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) identified them as deceased, shifted, untraceable or duplicate, officials said.

The draft electoral roll, published for all 60 assembly constituencies, contains 21,69,243 electors against 23,49,645 before the revision, reflecting a reduction of 1,80,402 names following a statewide house-to-house verification exercise, according to the official statistics.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) BDR Tiwari said the excluded electors comprise 81,490 deceased, 45,011 untraceable or absent voters, 42,532 people who have permanently shifted, 6,701 duplicate entries and 4,668 cases where enumeration forms were refused or fell under other categories.

The SIR exercise achieved 100 per cent distribution and digitisation of Enumeration Forms, covering all 23,49,645 electors in the state.

The revision also linked 7,75,665 electors (33.01 per cent) directly with the 2005 SIR database, while 11,70,792 electors (49.83 per cent) were mapped through their parents' or grandparents' electoral records.

Another 2,22,786 electors (9.48 per cent) could not be linked to the 2005 records and have been placed under the "No Mapping" category.

Officials clarified that these electors have not been deleted from the electoral roll and their cases will be examined individually during the claims and objections process after issuing notices and providing an opportunity to be heard.

The publication of the draft roll marks the beginning of the statutory period for filing claims and objections, which will continue till September 4.

Electors whose names appear in the draft roll and are successfully mapped with the 2005 records need not take any further action, the CEO said.

Those whose names are not mapped will receive notices for verification, while eligible citizens whose names do not figure in the draft roll may apply for inclusion by submitting Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration, he said.

The Election Commission has also approved the rationalisation of polling stations in Meghalaya, resulting in the creation of 86 new polling stations, taking the total from 3,551 to 3,637 across the state.