On Saturday evening, the Election Commission released the completed voter list for Kerala after finishing the Special Intensive Revision – or SIR. The new list has 26,953,644 voters; that is, approximately 2.69 crore. Authorities had initially sent about 27.8 million revision forms around the state to begin the process.
How the SIR worked and the list was made final
Before the rolls were finalised, officials carefully checked, held hearings, and made changes throughout all 140 Assembly districts. The SIR ran from October 27th to January 30th, though some work went on into February because of late requests and corrections. The Election Commission stated that public hearings and what the law required directed the removals and additions. Local people in charge organised checks at the voting station level, and put out preliminary lists before sending warnings about possible removals and questionable items.
New voters, voters removed, and main numbers in the final list
During the revision, officials took 906,211 names off the voter list after checking and looking at them again. 53,229 of these were removed after required hearings, because of things like people dying while being counted, being citizens of another country, moving away, or being listed twice. However, 424,518 new voters were added to the final list. From October 27th to January 30th, the commission accepted 1,351,151 applications – Form 6 – to be added. The final numbers by gender show 13,827,319 women, 13,126,048 men and 277 voters who are transgender.
Updates about voters abroad and in the services
The SIR approved 159,111 applications – Form 6A – from people living outside the country who were registering to vote from overseas. The updated list contains 223,558 Indian citizens who do not live in India, and can vote as allowed by the rules. The list also includes 54,110 service voters. Officials pointed out that these groups are given special attention to confirm they are allowed to vote, and to be sure those voters living overseas and in the services can see the voter list before the election.
Checking by the public, warnings and continuing corrections
Authorities dealt with 2,428,639 requests to add or remove voters during the revision period, and accepted 393,333 requests to correct what was already on the list. The commission also sent out 3,688,948 warnings for hearings after the draft list was published. The Election Commission gave a website to help voters check their entries. People can look up their names and details at https://electoralsearch.eci.gov.in using their voter ID number, name, a relative’s name, date of birth, or mobile number.
What this means for the Assembly elections and what happens next
Now that the final list is ready, work to get ready for the likely Assembly elections will speed up. The revised list has been sent to political parties to check, and people planning the election in the field will use it to complete plans for the voting stations. The election authorities emphasised that people can still register to vote until the last day to put in nominations for the coming Assembly elections. Voters who are unhappy can contact the commission to be added or removed even after the final list is released, and requests to correct details will continue to be dealt with.
