ECI notice to prove identity despite voting since 1989: Goa Congress MP

Panaji: Congress Lok Sabha lawmaker from South Goa Viriato Fernandes, a former Navy officer, said the Election Commission of India (ECI) issued him a notice asking him to appear with documents to prove his identity to retain his name in the electoral rolls as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters list.

Captain Fernandes, who defeated BJP candidate Pallavi Shrinivas Dempo in the South Goa Lok Sabha constituency in 2024, said the notice was issued despite him being registered as a voter continuously since 1989.

“This notice is coming on the backdrop of ECI having subjected every contestant during last Lok Sabha polls in 2024, including me, to the highest level of scrutiny before clearing names for contesting in the elections… If a Member of Parliament can be subjected to this scrutiny, one wonders about the state of a common man, confirming concerns raised by Opposition parties and NGOs/citizens about SIR being carried out by ECI to delete names of legitimate voters and prevent them from participating in the democratic process of voting,” Fernandes said.

“I have been voting since 1989 after becoming eligible thanks to late PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi Ji’s initiative of giving voting rights to 18-year-olds. I travelled to Goa multiple times from far-off places of military posting during my 26 years of service in the Indian Navy just to cast my vote, be it Lok Sabha, Assembly, Panchayat or zilla,” he added.

The notice issued to him directed that he appear before the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) on January 27 with the necessary documents.

As per the notice, which he posted on social media, Fernandes had not “filled in the details related to you or your relative that could establish you or your relative as a registered elector in the electoral rolls prepared during the previous SIR”.

In response to Fernandes’ complaint, AERO Janavi Kalekar issued a clarification reiterating that the enumeration form he had filled “did not contain mandatory details of the last SIR, including the Assembly constituency number, part number and serial number in the electoral roll”.

“As these essentials were not filled in, the BLO (booth-level officer) application could not automatically link the form with the existing electoral roll record. Accordingly, in the present case, the enumeration form was placed under the unmapped category by the system and a hearing notice was generated and issued automatically as per the prescribed procedure,” Kalekar said.

Goa is one of the states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is being conducted. The previous SIR was held in the state in 2002, and all voters currently enumerated as part of the ongoing SIR exercise who cannot point to their name, or the name of a parent or relative, listed in the SIR list of 2002 are categorised as ‘unmapped’ voters and issued notices to provide documents concerning their citizenship.

The ongoing SIR exercise has, to date, identified and removed 100,042 names from the draft roll, marking a deletion percentage of 8.44%. Out of an initial electorate of 1,185,034, enumeration forms were collected from 1,084,992 electors, amounting to 91.56% coverage. The draft roll flagged 25,574 electors as deceased, 72,471 as shifted or absent, and 1,997 as enrolled at multiple places, chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel said.

Goa goes to the polls in early 2027.