Garvita OdiaNew Delhi, August 16: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday criticised political parties and individuals for raising concerns over alleged errors in electoral rolls from previous elections, and said that the designated Claims and Objections period exists precisely for this purpose. 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 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 with the Electors and Political Parties for the filing of Claims and Objections before the final ER is published. 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 maybe 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. It seems that 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, if any, to SDMs/EROs, DEOs or CEOs. Recently, some Political Parties and individuals are raising 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 is precisely the objective behind sharing the Electoral Rolls with all Political Parties and the Candidates. Had these issues been raised at the right time through the right channels, it would have enabled the concerned SDM / EROs to correct the mistakes, if genuine, before those elections. 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.
