Voters face issues as EC portal down in Bengal after SIR rolls publication

Voters in West Bengal were left high and dry for most parts of the day, unable to access their electoral status on the website of the Election Commission and its mobile application following the publication of post-SIR electoral rolls on Saturday, on account of the portal remaining dormant on "technical" grounds.

Although online data on the EC-designated websites could not be accessed since morning, officials said they realised the problem after users reported them to be "down" and inaccessible at around 1 pm.

The poll panel has started publishing the electoral rolls in phases, which marked the culmination of a 116-day statewide exercise that began on November 4 last year.

 

The ECI's voter services portal and the state CEO's website were both unresponsive, triggering confusion among voters attempting to check their names on the list.

"The final electoral roll will be published online in the afternoon," an official of the office of the Chief Electoral Officer had said.

Following the announcement, a large number of voters logged on to the ECI's voter portal (https://voters.eci.gov.in/) and the website of the West Bengal CEO (https://ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in/). Both websites, however, failed to load.

The Commission had also informed that voters would be able to check their names through its ECINet mobile application. But users reported that the app was not functioning either.

"Even after entering the EPIC number, the app keeps loading without showing any result," a voter said.

There was no immediate official statement from the Commission regarding the technical glitch at the time of filing this report.