EC to update electoral rolls for an error-free list

According to the Election Commission data,photo electoral roll coverage in Uttar Pradesh is around 98 per cent. There are around 25 lakh voters missing from the photo electoral roll.

During the recent Assembly election,the control room of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Lucknow had received around 19,000 complaints and sources said that maximum of them were related with missing names and error in voters’ details in the photo electoral roll. Because of such discrepancies,a number of voters could not cast their vote in the election.

Sinha said that applications for addition and deletion of names and correction in voter’s details in the photo electoral roll would be accepted both on-line and off-line. Any person can get these application forms at voter registration centres,district magistrate’s office. It could also be downloaded from the website of the CEO.

During the summary revision of electoral roll that took place from September 29 to November 11,2011,only off-line applications were received.

Officials said that the toll free helpline number “1800-180-1950” would be functional to help the voters. The same helpline number was used as complaint cell-cum-control room during the recent Assembly elections.

Around 1.23 crore new voters were included in the photo electoral roll between 2007-2011. During the last five years,total number of voters in 403 Assembly constituencies of the state had increased to 12.58 crore,including 6.92 crore male and 5.65 crore female voters. Around 7.58 crore of these total voters has exercised their franchise in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

In 2007 polls,11.35 crore voters including 6.15 crore male and 5.19 crore female voters were listed in the electoral roll. But only 5.21 crore (45.95 per cent) voters had exercised their franchise in that year’s Assembly polls.