Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has accepted several suggestions from a delegation of political parties and civil society groups on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, including restoring deleted voters with their original voter serial and EPIC numbers.
“Several suggestions were already in the pipeline. They will retain their original voter serial number and EPIC number. For voters whose names were deleted and later placed in the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate (ASDD) list released on August 31, the CEO accepted a proposal that their voting rights can be restored by filling an enumeration form.
“The responsibility for restoring every eligible citizen’s right to vote lies with the Election Commission, a duty it cannot absolve itself of,” the delegation said after the meeting. We will consider all demands which help make the process easier for ordinary voters,” the official said. The group included members of the Aam Aadmi Party, CPI, CPI-M, CPI-ML, and activists Anjali Bharadwaj and Amrita Johri, as well as members of the Voter Adikar Manch, according to a statement issued by the delegation on Monday.
On Form 7 applications seeking removal of a voter’s name, the delegation said verification must be sought from the BLA-2 (Booth Level Agent-2) who filed the form. It demanded that all Form 7 applications be made public, that notices be sent to affected voters, and that decisions be made only after a fair and adequate hearing. The group flagged incorrect Form 7 filings in Mustafabad and said appropriate action must be taken. It was also agreed that cases where the ERO or Assistant ERO themselves filed Form 7 to remove a name would be re-examined, according to the delegation.
The delegation said the CEO issued directives and that a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) would be released shortly. It urged that similar cases be brought to the immediate attention of the Electoral Registration Officer.
The delegation said it was asked, in response, to submit the names of those it believes were wrongly removed, based on its own surveys.
The group also demanded that the list of voters removed before the SIR, with reasons, should be made public. The group met the CEO at his Kashmiri Gate office on Monday to press for the protection of every eligible voter’s right to vote during the SIR.
