Election Commission to run special drive to enrol left-out voters in SIR-ended states: Report

Amid the anomalies and differences among the Election Commissioners, and the deletion of around 13 crore voters during the controversial SIR drive, which placed the Election Commission of India in the dock, particularly Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, who allegedly acted like a dictator in key decision-making, the Commission is believed to be planning a special drive to enrol those voters who were left out of the list.

The reported drive is believed to be an attempt to safeguard the face of the Election Commission, whose integrity has been questioned ever since it began the SIR process, through which crores of voters lost their right to vote. The anomalies and discrepancies involved in the process had already been revealed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and others; the latest report by The Indian Express has further shed light on them.

According to The Indian Express, the new direction to hold a special drive in the 20 states, where the SIR process had already ended, was given in writing on September 29 and repeated at a video conference with all state Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) on Thursday.

The Election Commission’s decision to order a special drive for the enrolment of voters left out of the electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has brought into sharper focus the concerns raised over the manner in which deletions were carried out and the centralised control exercised over the electoral database.

The Commission has now made it clear that voters left out in the 20 States and Union Territories where the SIR process has ended can seek enrolment through the ordinary statutory Form 6.

The direction requires Chief Electoral Officers, District Election Officers and Electoral Registration Officers to undertake a special drive for the enrolment of “left out” and first-time eligible voters under the process of continuous updation, with officials also instructed to compare the pre-SIR and post-SIR rolls, identify those whose names disappeared during the revision and facilitate their return through Form 6.

The latest communication settles the question of the additional declaration that had been attached to Form 6 during the SIR exercise, stating that the declaration will be used during the “SIR phase only”, while outside the SIR, the Forms applicable under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, will be used.

This means that in States where the SIR has already been completed, first-time voters and those left out of the final roll will be able to seek enrolment through the plain statutory Form 6 without having to answer the additional question introduced during the revision.

The instruction assumes particular significance in the light of complaints that some deletions may not have been capable of being reversed through the existing ECINet system, with the case of 97 voters in Goa providing a striking example; although the voters had produced the required documents and were found eligible by the Electoral Registration Officers, officials reportedly found that the system offered no option to restore their names before the final roll was published.

The episode also echoes concerns recorded by Election Commissioners in their earlier communications, particularly over the centralisation of control of the electoral database and restrictions allegedly placed on statutory officials in operating the system, concerns which, according to the report, remained unanswered until the Commission’s meeting on September 26.