THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amid demands from political parties to postpone the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls till the local body elections are over, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)-Kerala has brought out a schedule for carrying out the exercise in the run-up to the 2026 assembly election.
The schedule was announced by CEO-Kerala, Rathan U Kelkar, at a meeting of the representatives of recognised parties here on Wednesday. As per the schedule, the distribution of enumeration forms to all voters who figure in the 2025 electoral roll and the collection of data will be conducted from November 4 to December 4. “Booth-level officers (BLOs) will visit the houses of voters and distribute the enumeration forms that need to be signed and returned by the elector or a close relative of the elector. All voters in the 2025 electoral roll, whose enumeration forms have been signed and returned, will figure in the draft voters list to be brought out on December 9,” Kelkar said.
The official added that documents for verification need to be submitted only after the draft voters' list is published. This will be examined at the level of the Electoral Registration Officers, and only ineligible voters will be excluded. “Voters will also be able to apply for changes in the draft voters list or raise objections against exclusions or additions from December 9, 2025, to January 8, 2026,” Kelkar clarified.
Notices will be issued on the basis of the objections, and hearings will be conducted from December 9, 2025, to January 31, 2026. “The final SIR voters list is scheduled to be published on February 7, well in time before the upcoming assembly elections,” Kelkar said.
The CEO said that around 68% of the voters in the 2025 electoral roll also figure in the 2002 SIR-based electoral roll. Such voters will not have to submit any verification documents during the upcoming SIR process. For the voters in the 2025 electoral roll who do not figure in the 2002 list, no additional documents would be required if they identify the Electoral Photo I-card (EPIC) number of their parents who figured in the 2002 electoral roll.
“Only around 10% of the voters in the 2025 list will have to submit verification documents along with the declaration forms. This is unlikely to cause any hardship as most of the voters would be having any of the 13 documents prescribed by the Election Commission of India,” Kelkar said.
The CEO said the SIR process will not cause any disruption to the upcoming local body election. “The role of polling officials participating in the SIR exercise will start only by December 10. Prior to this stage, the work will be carried out by BLOs who have no role in the local body election,” the official clarified.
