THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Terming the Election Commission of India’s extended time-frame for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state as “inadequate,” major political parties, except the BJP, have demanded further extension of the enumeration deadline at least till the end of December.
The political parties made the demand at a meeting convened by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)-Kerala Rathan U Kelkar here on Saturday. Representatives of the CPM, Congress and IUML expressed concern over the 20.75 lakh voters whose enumeration forms have yet not been collected.
M Vijayakumar of the CPM expressed doubts over the exact number of voters who have been left out. While CPI’s Sathyan Mokeri questioned the undue haste on the part of the ECI, M K Rahman of the Congress cautioned that at least 34 lakh voters will be expelled from the draft electoral roll.
IUML’s Mohammed Shah pointed out that the time-frame from December 23 to February 4 during which Electoral Registration Officers will conduct hearings on complaints of voters would not be sufficient to complete the exercise. BJP’s J R Padmakumar demanded that proper hearing should be conducted before any voters are excluded from the electoral roll.