ECI Asserts Transparency in Electoral Rolls; Political Parties Urged to Raise Issues on Time

NEW DELHI: The election system for Parliament and Assembly elections in India is a multi-layered, decentralised construct as envisaged by law. Based on the guidelines issued by the Election Commission, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), who are SDM-level officers, prepare and finalise the Electoral Rolls (ER) with the help of Booth Level Officers (BLOs). EROs and BLOs undertake the responsibility for the correctness of the electoral rolls.

After the publication of the draft electoral rolls, digital and physical copies of the same are shared with all political parties and put on the ECI website for anyone to see. Following the publication of the draft ER, a full one-month period is available for the electors and political parties to file claims and objections before the final ER is published.

However, after the publication of the final ER, digital and physical copies are again shared with all the recognised political parties and published on the ECI website. Following the publication of the final ER, a two-tiered process of appeals is available wherein the first appeal may be preferred with the District Magistrate (DM) and the second appeal with the CEO of every state/UT.

Utmost transparency is the hallmark of electoral roll preparation as per law, rules, and guidelines. Additionally, some political parties and their Booth Level Agents (BLAs) did not examine the Electoral Rolls at the appropriate time and did not point out errors; in case of any, they will be directed to SDMs/EROs, DEOs, or CEOs.

Recently, some political parties and individuals have raised issues about errors in electoral rolls, including the electoral rolls prepared in the past. The appropriate time to raise any issue with the Electoral Rolls would have been during the Claims and Objections period of that phase, which was precisely the objective behind sharing the Electoral Rolls with all political parties and the candidates.

ECI continues to welcome the scrutiny of electoral rolls by political parties and any elector. It will help SDMs/EROs to remove the errors and purify the Electoral Rolls, which has always been the objective of ECI.

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