The State Election Commission is planning to make the revision of electoral rolls of local bodies a continuous process from next year. Continuous revision will enable eligible individuals to enrol in the voters’ list or make revisions any time they choose to.
The commission, which is tasked with conducting elections to the local bodies and preparing voters’ lists, presently follows a system where revisions are made just ahead of an election or a bypoll. The drawback of this system is that applications have to be dealt with in bulk within a short time span in the run-up to an election, a scenario which could lead to errors in the list.
Upcoming Mattannur poll
For example, for the upcoming elections to the Mattannur municipality in Kannur district, the voters’ list is being updated after a five-year gap.
By making the revision a 24x7 exercise, the commission can avoid such problems, State Election Commissioner A. Shajahan told The Hindu. “The Election Commission of India (ECI), for instance, follows a continuous revision process with an annual intensive revision of its electoral rolls. The State Election Commission also has that provision. But for practical reasons, we have been following a system where an intensive revision is carried out ahead of the election or bypoll to the local bodies concerned,” Mr. Shajahan said.
Reducing burden
Since the voters' registration is held online, the process can be monitored by the Electoral Registration Officers (secretaries of local bodies), the District Election Officers and the commission. ''We hope to introduce the system in 2023. It will reduce the burden of election officials as they will not have to deal with applications in bulk. As a result, the chances of errors creeping into the lists will also be low,'' Mr. Shajahan said.
Transition to the new system will not require amendments to existing laws or additional staff, he added. After the new system is introduced, special revisions will still be carried out ahead of elections, but it will be a less time-consuming process.
