Latest news with #Electoral
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Bihar electoral roll revision: Forms of 90% electors received, 36 lakh not found at their addresses, says poll panel
The Election Commission has said that it received enumeration forms of 90.12% of Bihar's electors ahead of the July 25 deadline for its special intensive revision (SIR) of the state's electoral roll, and that over 36 lakh were found 'not at their addresses'. The EC had ordered the SIR on June 24 and launched it the next day. The commission said in the order that it has decided to conduct the exercise for the whole country and was starting with Bihar as Assembly elections are due in the state. The EC order said that all 7.8 crore registered electors of Bihar would be required to submit enumeration forms by July 25 to make it to the draft roll to be published on August 1. On Friday, the EC said 7.11 crore forms had been received so far and 6.85 crore of them had been digitised. The EC also said 36.86 lakh electors (a little over 4.67% of total voters) had been found to be 'probably' deceased, permanently shifted or enrolled at multiple places. It said 6,978, or 0.01% of the electors, were 'not traceable'. The commission said the lists of the 'probably' deceased, shifted and untraceable electors were being shared with district presidents of political parties and their booth level agents 'to ascertain the exact status of each such elector before July 25'. The electors and parties would have from August 1 to September 1 to file claims and objections on the draft roll. Electoral Registration Officers would have till September 25 to dispose of these claims and objections before the final electoral roll is published on September 30. 'As per the SIR order, each of the more than 1.5 lakh BLAs (booth level agents) can submit up to 50 forms a day after certifying them. This step is in line with the ECI's commitment that no eligible elector is left out,' the EC said. Several booth level officers (BLOs) told The Indian Express that they have been working to complete the SIR exercise 'two-three days before' the July 25 deadline.
Indian Express
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
NGO ADR moves SC over revision of Bihar electoral rolls: ‘No reason for such a drastic exercise in a poll-bound state'
The NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission's 'special intensive revision of electoral rolls' in Bihar, terming it unconstitutional, saying it would disenfranchise lakhs of voters. 'The present Writ Petition has been filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India seeking setting aside of Order and communication dated 24.06.2025 issued by the Respondent Election Commission of India (ECI) directing for Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in Bihar (SIR Order) as being in violation of Articles 14, 19, 21, 325 and 326 of the Constitution of India as well as provisions of Representation of People's Act, 1950 and Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960,' the plea said. It added that if the order was not set aside, '…(it) can arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, which are part of basic structure of the Constitution'. It argued that 'the documentation requirements of the directive, lack of due process as well as the unreasonably short timeline for the said…Revision…further make this exercise bound to result in removal of names of lakhs of genuine voters from electoral rolls leading to their disenfranchisement'. As per the EC's June 24 order, the Bihar electoral roll will be prepared afresh, with the 2003 roll as the basis. All 7.8 crore electors in the state will have to fill out enumeration forms. While those who were on the 2003 rolls—4.96 crore electors—will not have to provide any additional documents, the post-2003 electors—2.93 crore people—would have to give their own and their parents' date and/or place of birth proof. In its plea, ADR said the June 24 order 'has shifted the onus of being on the voters' list from the State to citizens. It has excluded identification documents such as Aadhaar or ration cards which further make marginalised communities and the poor more vulnerable to exclusion from voting'. The plea said the declaration, as required under the special intensive revision process, is violative of Article 326 'in so far as it requires a voter to provide documents to prove his/her citizenship and also citizenships of his/her mother or father, failing which his/her name would not be added to the draft electoral roll and can be deleted from the same'. The plea contended that the Election Commission has issued 'unreasonable and impractical timeline' to conduct the special intensive revision in Bihar, so close to state elections which are due in November 2025. 'There are lakhs of citizens (whose names did not appear in 2003 ER) who do not possess the documents as required under the SIR order, there are many who may be able to procure the documents but the short timeline mentioned in directive may preclude them from being able to supply the same within the time period,' the plea said. Pointing out that 'Bihar is a state with high poverty and migration rates where many lack access to documents like birth certificates or parental records,' it added that 'as per estimates over 3 crore voters and more particularly from marginalised communities (such as SC, STs and migrant workers) could be excluded from voting due to the stringent requirements as mentioned in the SIR order'. The writ petition said, 'The current reports from Bihar, where SIR is already underway, show that lakhs of voters from villages and marginalized communities do not possess the documents as being sought for them.' The NGO said that Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 allows the ECI to direct a special revision of electoral rolls 'for reasons to be recorded', but the directive for Bihar 'lacks recorded reasons supported by any evidence or transparent methodology, rendering it arbitrary and thus liable to be struck down'. The plea said that 'while SIR of Bihar or any other state of country is a positive step, but the manner in which ECI has directed the conduct of SIR in a poll bound state like Bihar, has raised questions from all stakeholders, particularly the voters'. The NGO said the Special Summary Revision (SSR) was already conducted between October 29, 2024 and January 6, 2025 and addressed issues such as migration and ineligible voters due to death or other reasons and 'thus, there is no reason for such a drastic exercise in a poll bound state in such a short period of time, violating right to vote of lakhs of voters'.
Indian Express
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
11 documents listed by EC for Bihar voter verification: Why getting even one is easier said than done
AT the heart of the Election Commission's special revision of rolls in Bihar is its instruction on June 24 that any person whose name is not recorded in the 2003 Electoral Rolls – an estimated 2.93 crore – needs to submit at least one of 11 documents establishing eligibility to vote. Two EC statements, issued on June 24 and June 30, cite the reasons behind the revision: 'inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants,' 'frequent migration,' young citizens becoming eligible to vote and non-reporting of deaths. According to the EC instructions, the list of the 11 is indicative, not exhaustive. This is because under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are empowered to make the electoral roll and the EC can only issue guidelines. The ERO has to be 'satisfied' with the application and the EC cannot limit the documents the ERO can use to do so. However, given the socio-economic realities of Bihar, the nature of the 11 documents frames the challenge: As per rules, the time taken to issue a birth certificate varies from a few days, if reported, to a protracted process involving an affidavit and, in case of delays, even an order from a First-Class Magistrate. Bihar has a poor record in this. In 2000, the year from which the Registrar General of India began recording data, Bihar registered only 1.19 lakh births, 3.7% of the estimated births that year. Bihar's birth registration rate has progressively increased, but even in 2007— those born in this year will be 18 years of age and eligible to vote in 2025 — only 7.13 lakh births were registered. This was one-fourth of the estimated births in Bihar that year. As per data of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs as on June 1, 2025, Bihar had received only 4,696 claims under the Forest Rights Act and all of them were for individual rights. Just 191 claims were distributed, and 4,496 claims were rejected. To register oneself in the family register, one would have to go to the Panchayat or Municipal office and fill an entry form with reasons such as newly settled or left out in the last enumeration. One would then be expected to attach supporting documents such as Aadhar, ration card, Birth Certificate, Marriage certificate etc. This would be followed by a verification through field visit by the concerned authority. It may take up to a fortnight or more to get oneself registered if all documents are in order. Not being able to furnish one of these documents could open another challenge. According to Paragraph 5 B of the EC's instructions, the official concerned could flag 'cases of suspected foreign nationals' to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act.
The Hindu
30-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Voter verification drive in Bihar: too little time, too many hurdles
The Election Commission of India (ECI) recently issued an order for holding Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls for Bihar. This exercise will then be carried out in all the States. The order is antithetical to the tradition of this august institution. From the first election held in independent India, the ECI has played a heroic role in seeding democracy through active voter enrolment and protection of the right to vote of the disadvantaged. Though the ECI is facing a credibility crisis of late, this initiative is surprisingly radical. And unless it is substantially modified, it will disproportionately disenfranchise the poor and deprived electors irrespective of their party preference. We will leave the thorny questions of legality to the experts and just focus on the scale of the venture and its practicability within the proposed timeline. As per the directive, all individuals who have not been featured in the electoral rolls of 2003 need to prove their citizenship as per the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003, and Rules. Broadly, if the 2003 electoral roll features nearly all individuals who were 18 years or older then, these individuals, now 40 years and older, get a direct entry into the proposed electoral roll. How many then have to go through the hoops? The affected population In 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare published a report, Population Projections for India and States 2011-36. The report estimates the current voting age population of Bihar to be 8.08 crore. About 59% of this population (4.76 crore individuals) is 40 years old and under. The ECI, from July 1 to July 31, requires this staggering number to prove citizenship. In its press note of June 28, the ECI stated that the electorate count in Bihar is 7.9 crore. As per the ECI, as '4.96 crore of the 7.9 crore already have their names in the last intensive revision of electoral rolls' in 2003, just 2.94 crore individuals will need to submit their eligibility documents. This is clearly an oversight. The electoral roll of 2003 for Bihar did have around 4.96 crore individuals. By our calculations from the reports of the Sample Registration System, around 1.1 crore of them are dead. The ECI has taken them off the rolls. Plus, there is sizeable number of people who have permanently migrated out of Bihar. As per a paper by Pinak Sarkar, Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, deriving from the Census, 93 lakh people permanently migrated out of Bihar between 2001 and 2011. Even if migration has slowed a bit after 2011, an average of 8 lakh out-migrants a year from Bihar in the period 2003-24 would mean a total of 1.76 crore out-migrants. If the share of those over 18 years of age in the 1.76 crore group is the same as the proportion in the Bihar population, this amounts to 94 lakh voters who have migrated out of Bihar permanently. If even one fourth of them remain electors in Bihar, 70 lakh are no longer electors in Bihar and are voting elsewhere in India. The ECI would have taken them off the Bihar electoral rolls. Hence, of the 4.96 crore electors in the 2003 list, if we remove those who are dead and those who have migrated from Bihar permanently, around 3.16 crore electors remain in the present count of Bihar's electorate. These 3.16 crore people who were also on the 2003 list do not need to submit any eligibility documents. The rest of the 4.74 crore individuals (7.9 crore-3.16 crore) need to submit their documents. This figure is very similar to our 4.76 crore estimate based on population projections. The ECI requires this staggering magnitude to prove its eligibility to vote within a month. Proof of citizenship What is this proof of eligibility? The ECI says a copy of one document in a list of 11 needs to be presented. Seems simple? Perhaps for some other State, but certainly not for a document-scarce State such as Bihar. Let us list the 11 documents and look at the data that is publicly available for our demographic of 18-40 years. The first is identity card/pension card of State government/ Central government/public sector undertaking. As per the 2022 caste census, 20.47 lakh Biharis have government jobs. Fewer than half of them will be from the 18-40 age group and pertain to less than 2% of this group. The second is an identity card issued before July 1, 1987. This is not applicable. The third is a birth certificate. As per the National Family Health Survey-3, 2.8% of Bihar's population born between 2001 and 2005 possess a birth certificate. Much of our age group of interest was born before 2001, so a negligible proportion possesses this document. The fourth is a passport. Around 2.4% of Bihar's population possess a passport. The share would be higher in the 20-40 age group but would not reach double digits. The fifth is a matriculation certificate. Deriving from the National Family Health Survey-2 and National Family Health Survey-5, around 45-50% of 18-40-year-olds are matriculate. As of 2019-20, there is a 10% point gap overall between male matriculates and female matriculates: females are at a definite disadvantage The sixth is domicile. In-migrants in Bihar are an insignificant proportion of the population. The seventh is a forest rights certificate. The share of Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Bihar is 1.3%, according to the 2011 Census. Of them, those living in forests form a much lower share. The eighth is an Other Backward Classes (OBC)/Scheduled Castes (SC)/ST certificate. Data from the India Human Development Survey-2, analysed by Professor Ashwini Deshpande and Rajesh Ramachandran in The India Forum, notes that around 20% of SCs, 18% of OBCs, and 38% STs had a caste certificate. Considering that almost no upper castes possess caste certificates, around 16% of Biharis possessed a caste certificate in 2011-12 when this survey was conducted. Those eligible individuals who are 30-40 years of age today would already have obtained a caste certificate by 2012 had they wished; even if the rest obtain caste certificates in a higher proportion, overall not more than one in four households are likely to possess this document. The ninth is the National Register of Citizens. This is applicable solely to Assam. The tenth is the family register. This is also not applicable to Bihar. The last is a land/house allotment certificate by the government. There is no data available on land allotment certificates. House allotment certificates seem applicable to government employees availing government housing. No such certificate is given to beneficiaries of schemes such as the Pradhan Mantra Gram Awas Yojana. Most people without a matriculation certificate are unlikely to apply for a passport, a government job, or a caste certificate. By the ECI's new rule, the matriculation certificate has effectively become the main eligibility proof for voters aged 18 to 40. This shifts us from adult franchise to a system that favours only matriculates. As a result, around 2.4 crore-2.6 crore people who had to leave school due to poverty may now be left out of the voters' list. The final number of people disenfranchised will be even larger than this if we add the over 40-year-olds who have been missed in the 2003 voters' list and those over 40 whose present names don't match with those in the 2003 voting list. These hundreds of lakhs of people will lose their constitutional right to vote not because they are illegal migrants but because they are illegible to a State which lacked the capacity to issue birth certificates, render basic education, or issue caste certificates to the deprived castes. A State cannot penalise so many people for its own shortcomings. Why not Aadhaar? This also begs a simple question: if the ECI allows for OBC/SC/ST certificates, why is Aadhaar not allowed if the proof of identity document for a caste certificate is Aadhaar? It should not be that Aadhaar's major flaw is that it is more available — around 9/10th of the Bihar population possess it. Does the ECI believe that it has issued voter cards to non-citizens? Also, why not allow ration cards? Yet, even if the list of allowable documents is modified to be more inclusive, the project will disenfranchise people or become a bureaucratic waste because of the sheer paucity of time. Let us suppose that all the 4.76 crore who are asked to submit documents do so: that is, on an average, 1.95 lakh per constituency. Each constituency has one electoral registration officer (ERO) who has numerous other important duties. (The ECI website has no information on there being any assistant EROs in Bihar.) In the 62 days between July 1 and August 31, they have to scrutinise almost 2 lakh applications, prepare a draft roll, issue a notice, and launch a suo moto enquiry to each elector whose eligibility is doubted. That is a superhuman task. Rahul Shastri is a researcher associated with Bharat Jodo Abhiyan
Calgary Herald
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Is this Quebec riding already headed toward a byelection? Here's what to know
Depending on what happens over the coming days, the voters in a Quebec riding thought to be decided by a single vote could be headed back to the polls as a result of a tie. Article content Article content Two days after a judicial recount certified Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste as having barely defeated Bloc Québécois incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Noovo Info and CBC reported that a mail-in ballot sent before Elections Canada's deadline was returned to the sender on May 2, four days after the election. Article content Article content And it turns out Emmanuelle Bossé is a Bloc supporter. Article content Article content In an email to National Post, the independent agency confirmed an 'error with the return address printed on this elector's return envelope. Specifically, part of the postal code was wrong.' Article content Bossé told Noovo she would have voted in person had she known ahead of time. Article content What happens now will likely depend on what Elections Canada decides and, as of Tuesday, they 'are still working to gather all the facts.' Under the Canada Elections Act, in the event of a tie following a judicial recount, the Chief Electoral Officer shall, through a report or via two MPs or two candidates who have been declared elected, promptly notify the House of Commons, 'that, as no candidate was declared elected in the electoral district because of the equality of votes, a by-election will be conducted.' Article content Article content Whether Bossé's lost but otherwise legitimate vote will be counted as part of the judicial recount remains to be seen. It's not immediately clear in this situation if it's under the purview of the courts or the Chief Electoral Officer. Article content Article content Should the vote not be counted, and Sinclair-Desgagné wishes to challenge the validity of the vote to potentially force a byelection, she or an elector can formally contest the result via the courts. Article content 'In a contested election proceeding, a judge determines … whether there were any irregularities, fraud, or corrupt or illegal practices that affected the result of the election,' Elections Canada explains.
