Shillong, Aug 11: Election authorities in Meghalaya have identified 6,51,644 electors for further scrutiny during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) BDR Tiwari said on Tuesday.
The CEO has directed officials to ensure the process is followed properly before any decision is taken.
Of the total, 2,22,786 electors fall under the “No Mapping” category and 4,28,858 have discrepancies in mapping compared to SIR 2005 records.
The review meeting was chaired by the CEO and attended by Deputy Commissioners/District Election Officers, Electoral Registration Officers and other senior election officials.
ECINET has identified issues including mismatch of elector or parent names, age gap of less than 15 or more than 50 years between elector and parent, siblings born less than nine months apart to the same parents, more than six children linked to the same parents, and age difference of less than 40 years between elector and grandparent.
The CEO instructed all EROs and AEROs to examine these cases, issue notices in time and conduct hearings as per procedure. Electors who receive notices can appear before the ERO/AERO with required documents.
The draft electoral roll for all 60 Assembly constituencies was published on August 5.
The period for filing claims and objections is till September 4.
Notice and hearings will continue till October 31.
The final electoral roll will be published on October 7.
Since publication of the draft, 21,449 applications have been received. This includes 1,121 in Form 6 for inclusion, 8 in Form 7 for objection, 253 in Form 8 for change of address, and 1,067 other Form 8 applications.
The CEO also met representatives of recognised national and state political parties. He urged them to continue working through Booth Level Agents to help eligible voters verify names and file claims or objections where needed.
The Election Department reiterated that no name in the draft roll will be deleted without due process. EROs/AEROs must issue notice, conduct inquiry, give the elector a fair chance, and pass a reasoned order before taking any decision.
An aggrieved elector can appeal to the District Magistrate within 15 days of an ERO’s order. A second appeal can be filed with the CEO within 30 days of the DM’s order.
The CEO appealed to all eligible voters to check their names in the Draft Roll and file claims or objections within the deadline, instead of waiting till the last date.
