PANAJI
The Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Goa’s electoral rolls has led to the final deletion of 1,27,468 names.
The post-SIR electoral rolls were published by Goa's Chief Electoral Officer and has 10,57,566 voters -- 5,11,436 men, 5,46,121 women, and nine third gender voters.
Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goyal announced the publication of the final rolls at a press conference on Saturday at his Altinho office.
He said objections if any to the deletions can now be filed before the two District Electoral Officers (DEOs) -- North Goa and South Goa Collectors -- within the next 15 days.
A further opportunity if still aggrieved will be available in the form of appeals against the decision of the Collectors which can later be filed before the CEO but within 30 days.
The SIR process commenced in Goa on October 27 last year, when the rolls had 11,85,034 names.
A draft electoral list published after the initial phase of SIR on December 16 had removed 1,42,000 names of voters who were either deceased, absent at their place of residence, duplicate, or permanently shifted to some other place.
Those draft rolls had 10,84,992 names, including 58,923 who were flagged for various discrepancies.
They were issued notices and hearings were conducted by EROs and AEROs, after which 38,780 voters were deemed ineligible to feature on the rolls.
Meanwhile, through the entire process 12,166 names of new voters were also added through Form 6 applications, while 39,592 were deleted.
The final roll now includes 14,484 first time voters aged 18-19, accounting for 1.36 per cent of the electorate. It also lists 10,338 voters above 85 years, approximately 0.97 per cent.
In total, 27,426 names -- 2.53 per cent -- of voters who featured in the draft rolls published in December last year, have been removed.
Goyal said political parties have been given constituency wise and booth wise lists of the rolls and these have also been uploaded on the CEO Goa website.
Vasco constituency tops deletions
Vasco constituency recorded the largest number of deletions at 11,657.
Other constituencies with high deletions of names include Cortalim (9,389), Dabolim (5,489), Taleigao (4,947), Santa Cruz (4,738), Porvorim (4,563), and Panaji (4,274).
Goyal stressed that the revision is aimed at cleaning the rolls of duplication and ineligible voters.
He also said the process was conducted transparently, with notices issued and hearings held before deletions even as the final figures mark a significant 10% change in the strength of Goa’s electorate.
420 Portuguese passport holders deleted
With data collated from the home ministry, passport office and the FRRO, 16,721 Goans were reported to have acquired Portuguese passports, Goyal said adding that 428 of these had featured on the draft roll published in December.
"We have now deleted 420 of them and the process to remove the remaining eight is on," Goyal said.
