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CEC orders thorough checking of voters' list

Special Correspondent

Step to check possibility of ineligible or bogus voters in the State

LUCKNOW: Taking note of the possibility of ineligible or bogus voters being included in the electoral rolls for next year's Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami on Friday issued directives for a proper and thorough checking of the voters' list before its final publication on January 1, 2007.

Mr. Gopalaswami said the elections in UP would be held on the basis of the existing delimitation of constituencies as work on fresh delimitation has not been completed. He said the elections have to be completed before May 15, 2007, and denied that the Commission had received a communication from the UP Government for conducting the polls later this year.

The CEC, who earlier in the day held a meeting with divisional commissioners and election officials, directed the commissioners to appoint a village level officer at each polling booth for verifying the electoral roll. He asked the officials to complete the exercise before September 15 this year, which would be followed by the first publication of the list on October 6.

This is for the first time in the electoral history of the State that the divisional commissioners have been involved in finalisation of the voters' list.

Mr. Gopalaswami told reporters that from the experience of conducting the elections in Bihar and West Bengal it was found that divisional commissioners played a better supervisory role. He said a complete electoral roll was the basic requirement for conducting the Assembly polls next year.

In fact, the chances of bogus voters finding their way into the rolls emerged after the Commission conducted a sample survey of the voters' list in one rural and one urban assembly constituency. Sohawal (Reserved) and Allahabad South constituencies were selected for sampling and the survey found five per cent ineligible voters in the rural constituency, whereas in the urban-based Allahabad South the bogus voters' share was 10 per cent.

Stating that it is not necessary that similar discrepancies would emerge in all the 403 Assembly constituencies of UP Mr. Gopalaswami nevertheless admitted that the percentage of ineligible voters in the two constituencies was on the higher side. Denying that the situation was alarming, the CEC added that it was sufficient for the Commission to take note.

As for the photo identity cards of the voters, the CEC said although the State average was 65 per cent, in 60 constituencies the average of EPIC (electronic photo identity card) was above 70 per cent, and in 28 constituencies over 80 per cent voters had been supplied with identity cards. Mr. Gopalaswami said he had asked the officials to increase the EPIC percentage to 90-95.

Besides, the CEC said that 10,725 new polling stations would be added for the elections where the number of voters was above 1,500.

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