The State Election Commission (SEC) has decided to go ahead with its decision to use the voters’ list of 2015 as the database for the three-tier local body elections to be held later this year, virtually dismissing the reservations of political parties that have demanded that the voters’ list for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections be made the database.
The commission on January 4 issued an order to revise the 2015 voters’ list, along with the scheduled dates and guidelines.
Accordingly, the draft voters’ list will be published by district electoral officers on January 20 and the final list on February 28. The cut off qualifying date will be January 1, 2020 and all those who attain the age of 18 will be eligible to be enrolled as voters.
Sources in the SEC said an elaborate exercise was undertaken in 2015 to create a database of voters to be used in the local body elections that year and for the byelections thereafter.
The ward-level database of voters had been created using the booth-level voters’ list for the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 after field and house-level verification.
The sources said for the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and the Assembly elections in 2016, the voters’ list was based on the Assembly constituency level.
A ward-based voters’ list was required for the local body elections, since elections were held to various wards. Even political parties usually organised their election work on the basis of ward committees.
SEC, State blamed
The political parties are apparently not impressed by the SEC decision. Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala had registered his reservations at the SEC move.
Mr. Chennithala had pointed out to the possibilities of the names of ineligible people being included, along with the names of those who would have died since 2015.
Congress leader V.D. Satheeshan alleged that the SEC and the State government were responsible for the lapses regarding the voters’ list as they failed to take timely and appropriate steps.
Another reason for not using the voters’ list of the 2019 Parliament election is the enormous cost involved, estimated to be ₹10 crore. Besides, the SEC would have to mobilise personnel to carry out the requisite verifications.
The sources said since the SEC was involved in the process of carrying out delimitation of local body wards, it would be not possible to add to the workload of the employees.
Delimitation
The United Democratic Front has also opposed the delimitation of wards on the basis of the 2011 Census. The Left Democratic Front had preferred to go along with the SEC’s decision on ward delimitation. As per the schedule fixed by the SEC, district electoral officers are scheduled to hold discussions with representatives of political parties on January 16 and 17.
