PANAJI
As many as 81 of the 97 eligible voters whose names were deleted from Goa’s electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have reapplied for inclusion, while election officials are trying to trace the remaining 16 voters.
Officials said the names of all eligible voters would be restored to the electoral rolls after verification of the required documents. “Total 81 have reapplied for inclusion by filling up Form 6. There are 16 voters who are either missing or have not approached us,” an election official said.
Of the 16 voters who have not yet submitted applications, several are reportedly staying outside Goa or abroad for employment. Officials said such voters can use the online facility to submit Form 6 and seek inclusion in the electoral rolls.
“There is sufficient time before the Assembly elections and the process of including the names of eligible voters can be completed within that timeframe,” the official said. The deletion of the 97 voters had triggered controversy after a media investigation reported that the voters, despite being examined and found eligible by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), were left out of the final electoral roll.
According to the report, the centralised ECINet system did not provide election officials with a facility to reverse earlier deletion decisions. The office of the CEO, Goa, had reportedly sent eight emails to the Election Commission between February 11 and 17 seeking a “rollback” facility to reverse the deletion decisions in the 97 cases. However, the facility was not enabled before the final electoral roll was published on February 21.
Following the controversy, the Election Commission had indicated that eligible voters would not be denied their right to be included in the electoral rolls.
Officials said the applications submitted by the 81 voters would be scrutinised along with the supporting documents before their names are restored to the electoral rolls. Meanwhile, the ECI has said Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will visit the homes of persons issued notices during the ongoing SIR for being unmapped or having logical discrepancies. The BLOs will collect the required documents and upload them on ECINET for a decision by the ERO.
Such voters will ordinarily not be required to appear before the ERO or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO), with hearings to be conducted online in exceptional cases. Across the country, the ECI said SIR has been completed in 20 States and Union Territories, including Bihar and West Bengal. Young and first-time voters, as well as any person whose name was left out during SIR or subsequently, can apply for inclusion through the continuous updation process.
