THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the enumeration forms for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being distributed to 99.5% of the 2.78 crore voters in the state, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer-Kerala has decided to publish the list of 1.29 lakh voters who remained ‘untraceable’ owing to various reasons. This constituted 0.47% of the total electorate.
Addressing a news conference here on the sidelines of a meeting with representatives of various political parties, CEO-Kerala Rathan U Kelkar said the 1.29 lakh ‘untraceable’ voters included those who were found to be dead, had permanently shifted their residence, remained absent for a long period or also those who had already enrolled their names in other places.
“We will publish the names of voters whose enumeration forms have not been returned due to various reasons.
This will enable eligible voters as well as the Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of political parties to rectify the issues before the enumeration process ends on December 4,” Kelkar said. The official added that collection hubs have been organised at the booth level for voters to return the filled forms to the BLOs.
According to Kelkar, around 70% of the enumeration forms have been returned to BLOs. Of these, digitisation has been completed in 31.42 lakh forms (11.28% of the total forms) and the entire process is expected to be completed soon.
The official said that voters who have not yet received the enumeration forms should contact the toll-free voter helpline number 1950 or contact their respective BLOs whose contact numbers have been provided booth-wise in CEO-Kerala’s website.
Political parties flay process
Meanwhile, political parties in the state, except the BJP, raised concerns over the ‘haste’ in which the SIR was being conducted in the state. Alleging that SIR was being carried out without addressing people’s concerns, M Vijayakumar of the CPM said no relaxation of the SIR schedule has been provided even though the Supreme Court is considering the legality of conducting the exercise.
The Congress and the IUML also raised objections to the pace at which the revision is being carried out. Muhammed Shah of the IUML said BLOs were being asked to hurriedly complete the exercise by November 25 even though the EC-stipulated deadline is December 4. He alleged that it was being done to present before the Supreme Court that 80% of the enumeration forms have been collected back from the voters by November 25.