VIJAYAWADA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has extended the deadline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Andhra Pradesh by 10 days, allowing the ongoing door-to-door enumeration exercise to continue until July 24.
The extension comes on a day when the original deadline was set to expire. According to the revised schedule, the draft electoral roll will be published on July 31, while claims and objections will be accepted until August 30. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be released on October 3.
The decision follows a request from Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vivek Yadav, who wrote to the Election Commission on Monday seeking additional time for the collection and digitisation of voter enumeration forms.
The CEO cited representations received from various political parties and district collectors requesting an extension of the exercise. He also pointed out that, although the collection and digitisation process was originally scheduled to conclude on July 14, digitisation of nearly 5 to 10 per cent of the enumeration forms remained pending in several Assembly constituencies.
Considering the pending work, Vivek Yadav sought special permission from the ECI to extend the deadline. The CEO is also learnt to have enclosed the requests submitted by different political parties and District Election Officers seeking extension of the time along with his letter. The Commission approved the request, enabling officials to complete the enumeration and digitisation process before the publication of the draft voter rolls.