As the Opposition targets the ECI over Bihar’s special intensive revision and “vote theft”, the poll body on Saturday said that the political parties should have raised the matter. The poll body has issued a sharp reminder to political parties about their role in ensuring error-free voter lists, stating that “some political parties and their Booth Level Agents (BLAs) did not examine the Electoral Rolls at the “appropriate time” and are now raising issues.
The Commission emphasised that India’s electoral roll preparation is a “multi-layered decentralised construct” involving Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who are responsible for the correctness of rolls.
“It seems that some political parties and their Booth Level Agents (BLAs) did not examine the Electoral Rolls at the appropriate time and did not point out errors, if any, to SDMs/EROs, DEOs or CEOs. Recently, some Political Parties and individuals are raising issues about errors in Electoral Rolls, including the Electoral Rolls prepared in the past. The appropriate time to raise any issue with the Electoral Rolls would have been during the Claims and Objections period of that phase, which is precisely the objective behind sharing the Electoral Rolls with all Political Parties and the Candidates. Had these issues been raised at the right time through the right channels, it would have enabled the concerned SDM / EROs to correct the mistakes, if genuine, before those elections,” the poll body said in a press release.
“Recently, some Political Parties and individuals are raising issues about errors in Electoral Rolls, including the Electoral Rolls prepared in the past,” it said.
“The appropriate time to raise any issue with the Electoral Rolls would have been during the Claims and Objections period of that phase, which is precisely the objective behind sharing the Electoral Rolls with all Political Parties and the Candidates,” it added.
The poll body said that after the publication of the draft electoral rolls, its digital and physical copies are shared with all political parties and put on the ECI website.
“Following the publication of the draft ER, a full one-month period is available with the Electors and Political Parties for the filing of Claims and Objections before the final ER is published,” it said.
“After the publication of the final ER, digital and physical copies are again shared with all the recognised Political Parties and published on the ECI website,” it added. The EC said that utmost transparency remains as the hallmark of electoral roll preparation as per law, rules and guidelines. “EC continues to welcome the scrutiny of Electoral Rolls by Political Parties and any Elector. It will help SDMs/EROs to remove the errors and purify the Electoral Roll which has always been the objective of EC,” the poll body said.