The Hindu : New Delhi News : Naidu seeks fresh enumeration of voters

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Sunday, Aug 24, 2008
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Naidu seeks fresh enumeration of voters

J. Balaji

Alleges large-scale irregularities, omission of names in draft rolls

Appointment of special observers with senior officials from other States urged
Enumerators have not visited even half of the areas in the State, says TDP chief

NEW DELHI: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu has urged Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami to direct the Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to conduct enumeration of voters afresh in view of large scale irregularities and omission of names in the draft rolls that was published on August 1.

Mr. Naidu, who is here, in a petition to the CEC’s office, wanted door-to-door enumeration to be conducted as per the serial numbers given by the local authorities and thereafter the voters’ list and electors’ photo identity card (EPIC) prepared again in a free and fair manner.

Special observers with senior officials from other States should be appointed to monitor the process and all-party meetings/gram sabhas convened to hear the grievances and suggestions and to consider objections on the draft electoral rolls.Besides, appropriate action should be taken against the officials responsible for the irregularities and illegalities in the recently prepared rolls.

Though the CEO had stated that the intensive enumeration of house-holders, including taking of the photographs, had been completed in almost all the constituencies, the fact was, the enumerators had not visited even half of the areas in Andhra Pradesh. There were thousands of irregularities in the rolls almost in all villages, towns and cities of the State. The names of lakhs of eligible voters, who had exercised their franchise in the last elections, were found missing.

Mr. Naidu charged some electoral authorities of the State with acting in a biased manner. The CEO was not able to rectify the defects due to interference of the ruling party leaders and MLAs, he alleged.

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