By P. Sreekumaran
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Political parties in the State have voiced grave concern over the fact that more than 25 lakh voters are ‘untraceable’ in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The parties, with the exception of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), expressed their concern to the Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U. Kelkar at a meeting convened by him recently.
That the ‘untraceable’ voters number 25, 01, 012 is extremely worrying, opined CPI(M) State Committee member. M. V. Jayarajan. In the figures provided at the meeting held on December 6, the ‘untraceable’ numbered 20, 75, 381. But there has since been an increase of such people by over four lakh. These figures show that the conduct of the SIR exercise is anything but transparent, alleged Jayarajan. He also demanded that the number of ‘untraceables’ should be published, mandalam-wise, in the EC’s website, and the list should be given to the political parties. According to Jayarajan, in six booths of Thrikkaripur assembly constituency, voters residing in booth limits were inaccurately published as ‘untraceable’ or as having refused to return the enumeration forms. This being the grim reality, parties are insisting on the publication of the draft list on December 23 only after enough time is given for making complaints.
Of the total 8,80,344 voters in the State, 3,79, 729 are listed as ‘dead. Also, 3,26,380 are considered to have shifted permanently. There are also 50, 936 voters whose names are duplicated on the list. ‘Others’ include 8,762 cases. Such cases accounting for 3.16 per cent of the total enrolment forms distributed, are referred to as ‘uncollectable’, according to the update provided by Kelkar.
If the booth level officer(BLO) finds, based on verification, that the voter is deceased, the voter is marked as ‘dead’ under the uncollectable category. If local enquiry reveals that the voter has permanently shifted, the voter is marked as ‘permanently shifted or ‘absent,’ as appropriate.
In cases where a voter has two entries at different locations and chooses one, the other entry is classified as ‘duplicate’. If the voters clearly state that they do not wish to accept the forms, or that they will not be returning them, the case is marked as ‘other’.
Another matter of grave concern is the surprisingly large number of entries on the Absent, Shifted, Deceased (ASD) list in some of the polling booths in the State. To give one instance, a polling booth in the Thiruvananthapuram Assembly constituency – Northern portion of East Building of Sree Pattom Thanu Pillai UPS Sreevaraham (No. 138) – has 704 entries in the ASD list. While 16 are names of deceased voters, the vast majority – 592 – have been listed as ‘untraceable/absent’! This was the position on December 17.
In another instance, booth number 154 of the Vattiyurkavu constituency, also in Thiruvananthapuram district, boasts 347 entries on the ASD list. O these, the number of entries in the ‘EF Refused’ category – where the electors presumably refused to return the enumeration forms – is 116. Further, 102 voters have been listed as ‘untraceable/absent’.
The political parties, including the CPI(M), CPI, Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League(IUML) have taken serious exception to this, and have demanded that more time be given for tracing these voters and including them in the electoral rolls.
This shocking state of affairs is not confined to Thiruvananthapuram district. A booth in Fort Kochi shows 302 names on the ASD list, of which 82 have been listed as ‘EF refused’ and 69 ‘untraceable’. Likewise, in Kozhikode south constituency, the Zamorins HSS (Western Building) booth has a total of 112 names on the list, with 85 being categorized as ‘permanently shifted’. Several instances of voters being included in the ASD list have come from booths in Kollam district as well.
Jayarajan also challenged the listing of over 6.49 lakh voters as deceased. He wanted the CEO’s office to clarify the source of this figure. M. K. Rahman of the Congress voiced surprise over the number of “EF Refused’ category. He was of the view that very few people in Kerala would refused to exercise the right to vote, especially when the EC gives the option for None Of The Above (NOTA) on the electronic machines (EVM). In booth number 138 in Thiruvananthapuram constituency, 710 of the nearly 1,200 voters are on the ASD list!. Rahman said many of these voters have been casting their votes for decades. And it was unfair to ask voters who have been voting for years to enroll afresh due to ‘bureaucratic glitches’.
The political parties are happy that the Supreme Court has extended the deadline for collection of enumeration forms. But they say even this deadline would be difficult to meet in view of the enormity of the task. That is why they are insisting on further extension of the deadline. The SC has against this backdrop again asked the EC to take a sympathetic view of the situation in Kerala and do the needful. It remains to be seen whether the EC will implement the apex court’s suggestion. (IPA Service)
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