KOCHI: Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday approached the Kerala High Court seeking a directive to the Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officer of the state to take immediate steps to delete or freeze the 4,34,042 fake and multiple entries of names in the final electoral roll published for the Kerala assembly polls spreading over 131 assembly constituencies.
He pointed out to the Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala, that the allegations raised by the petitioner were genuine. Chennithala also sought a directive to the Election Commission to initiate criminal action against those responsible for the preparation and revision of such electoral rolls.
"Unless those fake and multiple entry voters are restrained from participating in the poll and criminal action is initiated against those who are responsible for the entries as per the law, far-reaching consequences will be caused to the electoral system," Chennithala said.
He said that that physical survey of residences of voters and an in-depth study of the final electoral roll published on January 20, 2021, through software were conducted by an expert team of his party, following large-scale complaints of bogus voters. The study had found that the final electoral roll contained duplication of names, fake entries and enrolment of a single voter in many booths in various constituencies. As many as 3,24,441 duplications of names and 1,09,601 bogus votes were detected in the final roll by the expert team.
The manipulations in the electoral rolls were made possible not due to any isolated acts of any individuals. It was understood that an organised move of government employees was behind the manipulation to get undue political advantage in the forthcoming assembly elections. In the state where the government changed every five years, the voting difference between the two coalition fronts was very negligible. Therefore, the manipulated votes of 4,34,042 lakhs would have a very significant impact on the election results. He had given a complaint to the Chief Electoral Officers in this regard. However, the CEO was keeping idle on his complaint on gross irregularities and illegalities in the electoral rolls.
He pointed out in his petition that the false entries were made possible either by false declarations by voters or with the connivance of electoral officers. Giving a false declaration was an offence while preparing such an electoral roll amounted to a breach of official duty by the officials. But, given the specific provision in the Representation of People Act, 1950, no prosecution could be initiated without the sanction of the Election Commission.
According to Chennithala, the ruling coalition parties are not aggrieved by the proven manipulation in the electoral rolls. The deceptive silence of the ruling party is suspicious, he said. Permitting a voter to exercise multiple votes would be a negation to the rule of law. He also sought to restrain those with multiple entries of names from voting in the assembly elections scheduled on April 6.