In a significant electoral update for Ernakulam district, the draft voter list published after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) now contains 2,330,643 individuals. This marks a substantial reduction from the previous list, with a total of 322,422 names being removed during the clean-up process.
Major Clean-Up: Absentees Lead the Removals
The draft list was formally handed over to representatives of political parties by District Collector G Priyanka on Tuesday. The previous list, published on October 27, had contained 2,653,065 names. The individuals removed have been categorised as absent, shifted, or deceased.
The 'absent' category constituted the highest number of exclusions from the draft voter list following the SIR exercise. Among the total of 322,422 removed, officials confirmed that 82,073 are deceased voters, while 96,506 were deemed untraceable. A further 89,067 individuals have permanently relocated from their registered constituencies.
Assurance of Rights and Path for Inclusion
District Collector G Priyanka provided a crucial assurance, stating that eligible individuals missing from the draft list will not lose their fundamental right to vote. Those excluded have a clear recourse. They can submit objections and complaints and can get their names added to the final voter list by submitting Form 6.
The administration has set a clear timeline, with the final electoral roll scheduled for publication on February 21. The collector emphasised that voting is a fundamental right and that the district administration is actively striving to include every eligible citizen in the list.
Special Hearings and Digitisation Champions
A specific challenge identified involves 206,061 people in the draft list who could not be linked to the 2002 SIR list. For these cases, the collector stated that special hearings will be conducted by the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to verify their eligibility.
The collector commended the efforts of the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), their supervisors, and other officials for their crucial role in successfully completing the massive SIR exercise. In Ernakulam, a total of 2,325 BLOs were appointed for the distribution and collection of enumeration forms, with special booths set up to facilitate the public.
On the digitisation front, the assembly constituencies of Kothamangalam and Vypeen were recognised as the first in Ernakulam to achieve 100% completion of the SIR digitisation process.
Further breakdown of the removed names reveals that 12,953 individuals were found to be included in multiple lists, while the remaining 41,823 include those who refused to return the enumeration form provided to them.
