Thiruvananthapuram: Following the completion of the house-to-house enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls on December 18, election authorities in Kerala are set to launch a focused drive to enrol new voters after the publication of the draft electoral rolls on Tuesday.
Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar said the special enrolment drive would mainly target citizens who have turned 18 and eligible voters who are yet to be included in the electoral rolls. The move is aimed at ensuring maximum voter inclusion ahead of the next phase of the electoral process.
Kelkar said election officials have already received 2.92 lakh applications under Form 6, meant for fresh voter enrolment. In addition, 15,157 applications have been filed under Form 6A for overseas electors. These applications will be taken up for verification and processing after the publication of the draft rolls on Tuesday.
During the enumeration phase, the digitisation of enumeration forms reached 100 per cent by 10 a.m. on December 18, marking a key operational milestone in the revision exercise.
However, a substantial number of entries have been flagged as uncollectable under the Absent, Shifted and Dead (ASD) categories. The total number of uncollectable forms stands at 24.81 lakh, accounting for about 8.91 per cent of the existing electorate.
This includes 6.49 lakh deceased voters, 6.89 lakh untraceable voters, 8.21 lakh shifted voters, 1.34 lakh duplicate entries and 1.86 lakh categorised under other reasons, Kelkar said.
Following requests from political parties, the ASD list has already been uploaded on the Chief Electoral Officer’s website. An updated version of the list, incorporating corrections and names of voters who have since been traced, will be released along with the draft SIR rolls on December 23.
The list has also been shared with booth-level agents of political parties to assist in identifying and tracing missing voters.
Claims and objections to the draft electoral rolls can be submitted between Tuesday and January 22, 2026, while the notice and hearing process will continue until February 14. The final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on February 21.
Kelkar also noted that, under election rules, additions and deletions to the rolls can continue until the final date for filing nominations for the 2026 Assembly elections.
He further outlined the appeal mechanism available to voters whose names are excluded, providing for appeals before the District Election Officer and subsequently the Chief Electoral Officer.
With IANS inputs