Page 7 - Election Commission

Who is ECI shielding?: Kharge questions after Rahul's voter deletion charge

Kharge asked who the EC has been shielding to allow for alleged vote theft, asked if the BJP is 'hollowing' out institutions meant to protect democracy

Over half voters in most states may not have documents in SIR: EC officials

More than half the electorate in most of the states may not have to provide any document as they will be covered in the electoral roll of the last special intensive revision (SIR) held in their states, Election Commission officials said on Wednesday. They pointed out that most states had the last special intensive revision of the voters' list between 2002 and 2004. That year will be considered their cutoff date for the next SIR. The Election Commission will soon decide on the date to roll out special intensive revision pan-India, and the exercise to clean up the voter list across states may take place before the end of the year, officials had earlier said. Chief electoral officers have been told to keep the electoral rolls of their states, published after the previous SIR, ready. Some state CEOs have already put up the voter list published after their last SIR on their websites. The website of the Delhi CEO has the 2008 voter list when the last intensive revision took place in the

Will scrap SIR if illegality found in methodology, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has said Bihar's voter roll revision will be invalidated if illegalities are found in the Election Commission's process, with its ruling to apply nationwide

EC should have probed instead of using offensive words for Rahul: Ex-CEC

Coming down hard on the Election Commission for its response on "vote theft" allegations, former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on Sunday said the poll body should have ordered a probe into Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's charges instead of "shouting" at him in a language that was "objectionable and offensive". In an interview with PTI, Quraishi said much of the terms used by Gandhi while making the allegations such as likening them to a "hydrogen bomb" were "political rhetoric" but asserted that the complaints which he was raising need to be investigated in detail. The former chief election commissioner slammed the Election Commission (EC) over the manner in which it carried out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, and said it is not only "opening a pandora's box" but the poll body has put its hand in the "hornet's nest" which will hurt it. The EC has rejected all the allegations of "vote theft" in the past. It has also all along maintaine

Centre appoints Pawan Kumar Sharma as Deputy Election Commissioner

Senior IAS officers Pawan Kumar Sharma and V Lalithalakshmi were on Saturday appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner and Joint Secretary in the Vice President's Secretariat, respectively, according to an official order. Sharma is a 1999-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre and Lalithalakshmi is a 2008-batch officer of the West Bengal cadre. Sharma, Additional Secretary in the Defence Ministry, has been appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to the government of India, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said. The Centre also carried out a major Joint Secretary-level bureaucratic reshuffle, with 35 civil servants appointed to various government organisations. Aman Sharma, an Indian Postal Service officer of the 2002 batch, has been named as Joint Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, the ministry order said. Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer Tarun Kumar Pithode has been appointed as J

Kerala Election Commission to meet political parties on SIR of voter lists

Lauding 100 per cent digital literacy in the state, CEO Kelkar said that the exercise will be "easy" and will be conducted with the support of the stakeholders, including public, media, and parties

EC to take call on pan-India SIR rollout soon, may be held before year-end

The Election Commission will soon decide on the date to roll out special intensive revision on a pan-India basis and the exercise to clean up the voter list across states may take place before the end of the year, officials said Wednesday. After a day-long meeting of EC's state chief electoral officers here, officials said that with as many as five assembly polls due next year, the all-India SIR could take place in the coming months in 2025. At the meeting, the CEOs suggested documents for the purpose of ensuring that no eligible citizen is left out of the electoral roll and no ineligible person is included in it. It was reiterated that these documents should promote ease of submission for the eligible citizens. This assumes significance as the Supreme Court has directed the EC to accept the Aadhaar card as the 12th document, besides 11 others, as proof of identity of the elector. The CEOs were told to keep the electoral rolls of their states, published after the last SIR, ready.

EC top brass reviews pan-India SIR preparedness with state poll machinery

A crucial meeting of the Election Commission with its state officials is underway to discuss preparations for a pan-India roll out of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. While senior EC officials are expected to make a presentation on the SIR policy of the Commission, the chief electoral officer of Bihar would share the state's experience in implementing SIR. This is the third meeting of CEOs after Gyanesh Kumar took over as the chief election commissioner in February. However, Wednesday's day-long meeting assumes significance as the preparedness of a pan-India SIR are being discussed, officials said. The Commission has said that after Bihar, SIR will be carried out in the entire country. There are indications that the exercise would commence later this year ahead of assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in 2026. The primary aim of the intensive revision is to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of ..

Accept Aadhaar card as 12th document: EC tells Bihar poll authority

The Election Commission has asked its Bihar poll machinery to accept Aadhaar card as an additional document to establish the identity of electors following the Supreme Court's directives. In a letter to the state Chief Electoral Officer on Tuesday, the Commission said "The Aadhaar card shall be treated as the 12th document, in addition to the 11 documents listed..." The EC made it clear that the Aadhaar card is to be accepted and utilised as a "proof of identity and not as a proof of citizenship", in terms of Section 9 of the Aadhaar (Delivery of Financial And Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act. Under Section 23(4) of the Representation of People Act, 1950, the Aadhaar Card is already one of the documents enumerated for the purpose of establishing the identity of a person. The poll panel also cautioned that "any instance of non-compliance or refusal to accept Aadhaar in accordance with this directive shall be treated with utmost seriousness". The Supreme Court on Monday .

Priyank Kharge seeks court-monitored audit, hackathon of EVM-VVPAT process

Karnataka's Minister for Information Technology Priyank Kharge has said that the state is ready to host a transparent evaluation of the entire EVMVVPAT process in partnership with judicial and industry oversight. Kharge had posted a copy of the letter he had written to the Election Commission of India again on September 6 on the social media platform X on Monday. In his letter, Kharge said he had written to the ECI on December 3, 2024, as well, outlining concerns regarding the function of EVMs and related procedural vulnerabilities, and suggesting a "constructive solution" in the form of a court-monitored ethical hackathon and audit, backed by the state. "With our strong technology and R&D ecosystem, I had proposed that Karnataka is well placed to carry out such a transparent exercise under judicial and industry oversight to rigorously test the EVM architecture and address public perception issues around electoral integrity," read the letter. He also said that on several ...

Shashi Tharoor calls EC's SIR exercise 'essential', urges transparency

Tharoor stressed that maintaining the credibility of the Election Commission was crucial and that any legitimate concerns raised by the opposition should be addressed fairly

Bengal CEO holds internal talks ahead of Election Commission meet in Delhi

In the run-up to a crucial meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar next week, West Bengal CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal is set to hold internal discussions with officials concerned on the state's electoral preparedness on Saturday and Monday, a source in the poll panel said. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has "shown interest in replicating" Bihar's special intensive revision of electoral rolls in other states and the proactive steps are being viewed as "introductions to electoral readiness", he said. "The execution of the special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar has garnered nationwide attention, with other states reportedly looking to learn from its approach. "Ahead of the Delhi meeting, the CEO's office is organising two rounds of consultations focused on the SIR and electoral preparedness. The first of these meetings will be an internal review on Saturday and then a comprehensive statewide assessment on Monday," the source told PTI. During these sessions, ...

Bihar SIR: Claims, objections can be filed beyond Sept 1, EC tells SC

The Election Commission of India on Monday said claims, objections and corrections in the draft electoral roll prepared in Bihar special intensive revision (SIR) exercise can be filed beyond September 1 but the same would be considered once the electoral roll was finalised. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi noted the submission of the Election Commission (EC) which said claims and objections could be filed till the last date of nomination forms in each assembly constituency. The top court while terming the confusion over the Bihar SIR as largely trust issue, directed the state legal service authority to deploy paralegal volunteers to assist individual voters and political parties in filling claims and objections to the draft roll, which was published on August 1. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for EC, said, Any extension of deadline will lead to disruption of the entire exercise and finalisation of final electoral roll. The poll panel further said 99.5 p

Bangladesh EC calls upcoming election 'most risky' in history amid unrest

Bangladesh's Election Commission (EC) on Friday described the national election scheduled for February next year as the "most risky in the country's electoral history, urging officials to brace for unpredictable challenges amid political uncertainty and social unrest. The remarks came a day after it unveiled a roadmap for the election, which has drawn mixed reactions from political parties. "The upcoming general election will undoubtedly be the most risky in Bangladesh's electoral history, Election Commissioner M Anwarul Islam Sarker said at a training programme for election officials, which was also attended by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin. "We may have to confront challenges that we do not yet know, he said. Unveiling the roadmap for the general election, Bangladesh's top electoral body had said the poll schedule would be announced at least 60 days before the voting date. Another election commissioner, Abdur Rahmanel Masud, echoed Sarker's concern, saying tha

Documents of 98.2% electors received during SIR exercise in Bihar: ECI

The exercise to collect their documents with the help of BLOs and volunteers is going on

Serving vs ruling in a democracy: Rethinking attitudes to governance

Indeed, this is a Perry moment for India, but it is unlikely to be the last - unless we fundamentally rethink governance and adopt jana seva attitude toward citizens. Are people being ruled or served

CPI (ML) Liberation files two claims, objections to SIR in Bihar: ECI

According to the press release, CPI (ML) Liberation is the only political party to file the claims between August 1 and August 22

Bihar SIR: ECI files affidavit in SC, says list of dropped voters published

The list also contained the reasons for their non-inclusion, including death, shifting of ordinary residence or duplicate entries, ECI told Supreme Court

SIR less about cleansing rolls, more about destroying democracy: Cong

The Congress on Thursday cited the Election Commission's own 2024 survey of all 243 assembly constituencies in Bihar to allege that the Special Intensive Revision is less about cleansing electoral rolls and more about "destroying democracy itself". Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared a media report on X which claimed that while the Election Commission has launched a special intensive revision (SIR) to clean up Bihar's electoral rolls, its own 2024 KAP (knowledge, attitude and practices) survey on voter insights noted the perceived "near-perfect accuracy of voter listings" in Bihar reflecting the "robustness of the electoral roll system". "The Election Commission's own 2024 KAP (Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices) survey of all 243 assembly constituencies in Bihar just after the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections stated that Rolls are already at 'near perfect accuracy'. Many eligible citizens are still unenrolled - thanks to paperwork & lack of ...

Rahul Gandhi warns CEC, 2 ECs of action when INDIA bloc forms govt

Asserting that "vote chori" is an attack on 'Bharat Mata', Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday warned the chief election commissioner and the two election commissioners of stern action when the INDIA bloc forms government. Intensifying his attack on the Election Commission, Gandhi also said the whole country would ask the poll body for an affidavit and if given time, his party would bring out the "vote chori" in every assembly and Lok Sabha constituency. The fresh attack on the EC by the Congress leader came a day after CEC Gyanesh Kumar served a seven-day ultimatum on him to submit a signed affidavit to back his vote theft claims, else his allegations will be considered baseless. Gandhi said that just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks about special package, the poll body also brought in a "new special package" for Bihar, which is named SIR (Special Intensive Revision), a "new form of vote theft". His remarks came on the second day of the 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' which began