Practical obstacles to implementing single electoral roll, will inform ECI: State Election Commission

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Election Commission may inform the Central Election Commission that there are practical obstacles to the implementation of the central proposal for a single electoral roll in the country for parliamentary, assembly and local government elections. The commission is also seeking the views of political parties on the new proposal.

At present, the Election Commission of India sets the voter list for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections and the respective state commissions for the local body elections. There is a difference between the way the voter list is prepared for both.

When rearranged as a single voter list, the State Commission will be challenged to update the voter list in the occasional by-election at the local ward level. It is not possible to update the voter list to a specific ward only, State Election Commissioner A.S. Shah Jahan said.

The list setting is completely different

The voter list in the local elections is arranged by counting the booths in each ward. However, for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the list is compiled on the basis of the number of booths within the Assembly constituency. Both are two types of booths. The Central Election Commission will be made aware of these practical difficulties. It was news that the then Chief Electoral Officer Teekaram Meena was denied the right to vote in the local elections last December as both were different types of voter lists. Only in the ensuing assembly elections did he exercise his right to vote.

Voters in the state

1. 2,74,23,236

(In the draft list of the Central Election Commission till November 8)

13272098 Male, 14150863 Female

2. 2,76,64,556

(In the current draft list of the State Election Commission)

1,31,77,338 males, 1,44,86,978 females

2,41,320

The difference between the two lists