Youngsters aged 17 plus year old can now apply in advance for having their names enrolled in the voter’s list and not necessarily have to await the pre-requisite criterion of attaining age of 18 years on 1st January of a year.
The Election Commission has directed the Chief Electoral Officers, Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers of all states to work out tech-enabled solutions such that the youth are facilitated to file their advance applications with reference to three subsequent qualifying dates – 1st April, 1st July and 1st October and not just 1st January.
Henceforth, the electoral roll will be updated every quarter and eligible youngsters can be registered in the next quarter of the year in which he/she has attained the qualifying age of 18 years.
After getting registered, he/she will be issued an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC). For the current round of annual revision of electoral roll, 2023, any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by April 1, July 1 and October 1 of 2023 can also submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of electoral roll.
It may be recalled that on the recommendations of ECI, the Ministry of Law & Justice recently amended the RP Act to provide for four qualifying dates – 1st April, 1st July and 1st October as eligibility for youngsters to register in electoral rolls as opposed to the earlier single qualifying date of 1st January only.
As per the existing policy, revision of electoral rolls with reference to 1st January of the coming year as the qualifying date was done normally in the later part of each year in all states and union territories (normally in the last quarter of a year) so that final publication of the electoral rolls are made in the first week of January of the succeeding year. This meant that a large number of young persons who completed 18 years after 1st January had to wait for Special Summary Revision of the next year for enrolment and were not able to participate in elections held in the intervening period.
The Election Commission has also made the registration forms more user friendly and simpler. The newly modified forms will come into force on August 1. All applications (claims and objections), in old forms, received before August 1 will be processed and disposed of and in such cases, there is no need to file application in new forms.
The Commission has ordered Annual Summary Revision with reference to January 1, 2023 as the qualifying date in all states except the poll going states. All the pre-revision activities are undertaken in accordance with the Commission’s existing instructions and guidelines and Manual on Electoral Roll, 2016 and Manual on Polling Stations, 2020.
The revision and pre-revision activities are done in such a manner that the Electoral Rolls are finally published much before National Voters’ Day (25th January of every year) so that EPICs generated for new electors especially young voters (18-19 years) can be distributed to them in ceremonial manner on the National Voters’ Day.
The revision activities to begin in November include disposal of claims and objections received after publication of integrated draft electoral roll. Under the Special Summary Revision, a one-month period is available to file claims and objections in the draft electoral roll. Special camps will be organised by Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) on weekends for which the date will be fixed by the CEOs. The final electoral roll will be published on January 5, 2023.
