Address technical, procedural and administrative issues related to SIR: Haris Beeran

Rajya Sabha MP Haris Beeran has urged the Election Commission of India (EC) to address issues including those related to ‘non-mapping’ cases and place of birth issue faced by overseas electors under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala.

In a letter to Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MP cited a number of “technical, procedural and administrative” issues. According to him, the EC website was restricted to India IP addresses, which created a “significant barrier” for overseas Indians. The website should be made globally accessible so that electors could download voter information and submit their applications, he said.

In his letter, Mr. Beeran also drew attention to an issue that the IUML had been consistently raising at the political party meetings on SIR conducted by the CEO. The ‘Place of Birth’ field in Form 6A, used by overseas electors to enroll, was restricted to a dropdown menu of Indian States. This configuration excluded Indian citizens who were born abroad, making it impossible for them to accurately complete the application, he said.

A ‘Born outside India’ option should be added, he said. In the case of expatriates, there should be a provision for conducting SIR-related hearings either online or through an authorised representative since they could not appear before the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) in person, he said. He also urged the EC to extend the deadline for submission of documents under the ‘No Mapping’ cases.

Mr. Beeran also asked the EC to ensure that voters would not have to furnish fresh documents in cases where clerical errors had occurred on the part of booth-level officers (BLO) or for the correction of minor data errors and ‘logical discrepancies’ due to the translation of the 2002 voter list from Malayalam to English.