Voters question ECI's unilateral name deletions

WITH complaints of the deletion of thousands of voter names emerging on polling day in Tamil Nadu, a section of voters and activists have demanded that the Election Commission of India's authority to unilaterally delete voter names should be regulated.

- B ANBUSELVAN

They demanded that it should be mandatory for notice to be issued to voters before their names are deleted and that a provision should be made for voters to exercise their franchise in the event of an erroneous deletion. On these demands, however, ECI officials remain tight-lipped and Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo could not be reached for comments.

During the general election polling on April 19, thousands of voters in Chennai and other parts of TN complained their names had been deleted despite possessing valid voter IDs and residing at the same address for several years.

According to ECI rules, voter names can be removed upon the receipt of Form 7 from family members. Furthermore, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of the constituency has the authority to delete names under suo motu powers in cases of death and other reasons. The ECI's guidelines for electoral roll revision suggest that Booth Level Officers (BLOS) should carry out field verification and issue notices to voters before their names are deleted, but in practice this is hardly implemented.