While the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar's voter rolls ended on Friday, the Election Commission (EC) announced that close to 35 lakh voters have permanently shifted or are untraceable since the exercise kicked off on June 24.
Bihar, which will conduct assembly polls later this year, has a projected electorate of about 7.90 crore individuals.
As per the EC, booth-level officers (BLOs), in cooperation with booth-level agents (BLAs) of political parties, also detected about 22 lakh dead voters. Besides this, almost seven lakh people were found to be registered in more than one polling station.
The body of the poll also observed that approximately 1.2 lakh enumeration forms were still waiting to be returned. Nevertheless, the EC had indicated that coverage had hit a remarkable 99.8 percent, with 7.23 crore electors' forms already collected and digitized. All these names will be included in the draft electoral roll.
The rest of the forms and BLO reports are to be completed by August 1, when the draft electoral roll will be brought out.
In order to provide transparency, the EC released lists on July 20 to all 12 recognised political parties in the state, listing electors who have failed to submit forms, those who have been marked as deceased, and those who have permanently migrated. This action is to enable parties to check for accuracy prior to finalisation.
In accordance with the SIR rules, between August 1 and September 1, political parties or voters may file claims for the inclusion of any eligible but missed-out voters or objections to any ineligible names remaining in the rolls. Such claims and objections are required to be filed with the concerned electoral registration officers for verification and for making the required corrections.
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