Local polls won’t affect SIR in Kerala, 1 crore forms distributed in state in 1 week: Chief Electoral Officer

He said the December 9-11 local body polls, which were announced on Monday, would not affect the SIR.

As per the existing data of the Election Commission, the state has 2,78,10,942 voters on the electoral roll. The voters list published by the state election commission, which is conducting the elections to the local bodies, has 2,84,30,761 voters as of October 25.

The Kerala CEO said the first phase of the process, which involves distributing the enumeration forms and collecting the filled-up forms, is expected to be completed by November 25. District collectors are conducting daily meetings with electoral registration officers, booth level officers (BLOs) and their supervisors, he said, adding that the district collectors have been given instructions to ensure that BLOs complete the distribution of enumeration forms by November 25.

Last week, the CEO had directed district collectors to ensure that there is no operational overlap between the SIR and local body elections. It was decided that the BLOs are not assigned any duties linked with the local body elections. Likewise, the officials engaged with the conduct of the local body elections will not be entrusted with BLO duties during the ongoing SIR. In cases where any officials involved in the local body elections are designated as BLOs for SIR, such personnel will be replaced by other suitable officials as per the instructions from the Election Commission of India.