Revision of photo electoral rolls begins in Pondy

The special summary revision of photo electoral rolls relating to all the 30 Assembly segments in the Union Territory, began here Saturday.

Addressing reporters, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V Candavelou said the present draft electoral rolls have been displayed in all polling stations and also on the premises of the Electoral Registration offices for public-viewing.

The special summary revision is being done in keeping with the directive of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to enable those attaining age of 18 as on January 1, 2019 (qualifying date) to register their names in the voters list, he said.

The Elections department receives applications from fresh voters and also for deletion and to register objections, all of these would be disposed of on November 30, the Chief Electoral Officer said.

The department would publish supplementary list of electoral rolls on January 3, 2019, while the final publication of the rolls on January 4, he said.

The present voters strength, with women outnumbering the men, is 9,48,332, the election official said.

There is a decline by 5,730 voters when compared to the strength of voters during the previous revision, he said.

This was either due to the death of voters or migration of voters to other places, he said.

As the EC has decided to use Voter-verified paper audit trail along with electronic voting machines in polling stations during the forthcoming Parliamentary elections, the polling stations have been rationalised in the Union Territory, the official said.

Consequently, therewould be 970 polling stations as against 930 stations earlier, he added.

While there are 4,99,985 women voters presently in Puducherry, the men account for 4,48,259 of the total strength of 9,48,332 that includes 88 voters coming under the 'third gender' category.