PANAJI
Goa Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel on Friday said the Election Commission had not taken away anyone’s permanent right to vote and maintained that voters whose names are still missing from the electoral roll can seek inclusion by submitting Form 6.
Speaking to the media after a Congress protest outside the CEO’s office at Altinho, Panaji, Goel said the electoral roll revision process had been completed over seven months ago and that only a handful of appeals had been received during the intervening period.
Responding to the controversy over 97 voters whose names were not restored before publication of the final electoral roll, Goel said Booth Level Officers had subsequently conducted house-to-house visits and collected forms from voters who were available and willing to submit them.
“If the remaining individuals are willing and available, EROs will be asked to make house-to-house visits and help them fill the form. There is still time for the elections to happen. People can still submit the forms and get added and exercise their voting rights,” he said.
Goel rejected allegations of a major error in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, stressing that the electoral system had mechanisms for rectification. “There is no mistake. Everything has got a rectification process. We have not taken away anyone’s permanent right to vote,” he commented.
He also said political parties had not raised queries regarding the SIR process for several months after its completion. “It has been more than seven months since the entire process was completed and the final list was out. During this time, a handful of appeals had come, and the same were disposed of. Apart from that, there were no queries raised by anyone or political parties,” Goel said.
He declined to comment on the 15-day deadline set by the Congress for restoration of missing voters’ names.
Congress protest: Meanwhile, the Congress staged a protest outside the CEO’s office as part of its nationwide agitation against the Election Commission, demanding the arrest and resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the SIR exercise.
Congress leaders burned an effigy of Kumar and submitted a memorandum addressed to the President of India and the Goa CEO. The party pointed out that the SIR exercise had resulted in the deletion of around 1.27 lakh names from Goa’s electoral rolls and demanded restoration of eligible voters.
AICC Goa in-charge Manikrao Thakare alleged that the SIR exercise had affected voters’ constitutional right to vote and demanded Kumar’s resignation and legal action against him.
“Such a person should be arrested as soon as possible. He should resign,” Thakare said, alleging that repeated representations to the Election Commission had not resulted in corrective action.
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao claimed that the Congress had repeatedly raised concerns over the exercise and submitted memorandums along with what he described as evidence of irregularities.
He further alleged that the SIR exercise was carried out “at the behest of the BJP government in Goa and in Delhi” and demanded that Kumar be held accountable and resign.
GPCC president Girish Chodankar said the protest was part of the Congress’ national campaign against what the party alleged was a compromise of the transparency, independence and credibility of the Election Commission.
“The credibility of the Election Commission of India has been compromised,” Chodankar said, demanding Kumar’s removal to "uphold democratic values". He said the party had raised questions over various aspects of the electoral roll exercise, including the handling of forms, but had not received satisfactory answers.
