More Opportunities for youth to become part of voters list
Four chances in a year to enroll – need not wait for 1st January qualifying date only
Advance application facility to 17+ year youngsters
New User-friendly forms for voter registration w.e.f 1.8.22
Voluntary Aadhar collection to link with Voter card
Commission orders Annual Summary Revision; Pre-revision activity to begin in August
The Chief Electoral Officer, Sh Vijay N. Zade along with Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Sh. Vinay Pratap Singh and Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Sh. Sorabh Kumar Arora hosted a press conference to apprise the amendments in electoral roll.
Now, 17+ year old youngsters can apply in advance for having their names enrolled in Voter’s list and not necessarily have to await the pre-requisite criterion of attaining age of 18 years on 1st January of a year. ECI led by Chief Election Commissioner Shri Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Shri Anup Chandra Pandey have directed the CEOs/EROs/AEROs of all States to work out tech-enabled solutions such that the youth are facilitated to file their advance applications with reference to three subsequent qualifying dates i.e. 01st April, 01st July and 01st October and not just 1st January.
Henceforth, the Electoral Roll will be updated every quarter and eligible youngsters can be registered in the next quarter of the year in which he/she has attained the qualifying age of 18 years. After getting registered, he/she will be issued an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC). For the current round of annual revision of electoral roll, 2023, any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by April 1, July 1 and October 1 of 2023 can also submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of electoral roll.
The Election Commission of India, in pursuance of the legal amendments in the Section 14(b) of the RP Act 1950 and consequent modifications in Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, has initiated the process for bringing about necessary changes for preparation/revision of electoral roll of Assembly/Parliamentary Constituency. It may be recalled that on the recommendations of ECI, the Ministry of Law & Justice recently amended the RP Act to provide for four qualifying dates i.e., 01st January, 01st April, 01st July and 01st October as eligibility for youngsters to register in electoral rolls as opposed to the earlier single qualifying date of 1st January only.
The Commission has also made the registration Forms more user friendly and simpler. The newly modified Forms will come into force on 1st August,2022. All applications (claims and objections), in old forms, received before 1st August, 2022 will be processed and disposed of and in such cases, there is no need to file application in new forms.
Dr. Vijay N Zade, Chief Electoral Officer, Chandigarh also highlighted that the Commission has ordered Annual Summary Revision with reference to 01.01.2023 as the qualifying date. All the pre-revision activities are undertaken in accordance with the Commission’s existing instructions and guidelines and Manual on Electoral Roll, 2016 and Manual on Polling Stations, 2020. The revision and pre- revision activities are done in such a manner that the Electoral Rolls are finally published much before National Voters’ Day (25th January of every year) so that EPICs generated for new electors especially young voters (18-19 years) can be distributed to them in ceremonial manner on the day of NVD.
Pre-revision activities include Rationalization/Re-arrangement of Polling Stations; Removal of discrepancies of Demographically/Photo Similar Entries; Preparation of Supplements and integrated draft roll with reference to 01.10.2022 as the qualifying date. Commission has directed to take all efforts to ensure 100% removal of DSEs/PSEs from electoral roll and discrepancies in EPICs during the current round of pre-revision activities.
Chief Electoral Officer, Chandigarh also informed that the revision activities to begin in November include disposal of claims and objections received after publication of integrated draft electoral roll. Under the Special Summary Revision, a one-month period is available to file claims and objections in the draft electoral roll. Special camps will be organized in UT Chandigarh on 3rd weekend of November i.e.(19th and 20th ) and first weekend of December i.e.(3rd and 4th). The final electoral roll will be published on 5th January 2023.
EPIC-AADHAR linking
For linking of AADHAR number with Electoral Roll data, provision has been made in the modified registration forms to seek Aadhaar details of electors. A new Form-6B has also been introduced for collecting Aadhaar number of existing electors. However, no application for inclusion of name in electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar Number.
It has been emphasized that while handling Aadhaar number of the applicants, Aadhar guidelines will be followed
A Time bound drive is being started w.e.f. 01.8.22 for collection of Aadhaar number of the existing electors. Furnishing of Aadhaar number is purely voluntary. Objective of the programme is to establish the identity of electors and authentication of entries in Electoral Roll
Participative Process- Involving BLAs
With a view to ensure more involvement of political parties, the Commission has allowed Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of recognized political parties to file applications in bulk, subject to the condition that a BLA shall not submit more than 10 Forms to BLO at one time/in one day. If a BLA files more than
30 Applications/Forms during the entire period of filing claims and objections, then the cross verification must be done by ERO/AERO themselves. Further, the BLA will also submit a list of application forms with a declaration that he has personally verified the particulars of the application forms and is satisfied that they are correct.
