HYDERABAD: Election authorities have observed instances of registered voters from the same family having to cast their votes in different polling stations across 15 Assembly constituencies of the district.
Meanwhile, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials have asserted that a mass exercise underway since the past year to remove such anomalies and ensure that all members of a family living in the same location are brought under a single polling station.
According to official data, between May 2023 and March this year, measures have been taken to bring 3,78,713 (3.78 lakh) ‘split voters’ to a single polling booth. The GHMC also identified 1.81 lakh non-standard house numbers and corrected them between January 2022 and March 2024. The civic body also took up the deletion of duplicate, photo similar entries (PSE) and demographically similar entries (DSE), during which 54,259 entries were deleted.
GHMC officials said election authorities have been facing challenges in addressing the issue of ‘split voters’ due to the absence of a dedicated software for detection. Various political parties raised concerns claiming that thousands of voters in the Hyderabad district with the same house numbers were assigned to different polling booths, causing inconvenience to many, they added.
The officials said the election machinery in the district has been working to uphold the integrity of the electoral roll and implement measures for free and fair elections. Efforts have been made to ensure that polling stations are not only situated in accessible areas but also comply with all ECI norms. The process has been conducted by BLOs, EROs and others involved in election administration to guarantee the integrity of the electoral roll and fair voting, they added.
