Kochi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday said that those claiming errors in electoral rolls should file an affidavit within seven days.
If they failed to do it then it shows that their allegations were wrong for which they should apologise to the nation, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said addressing a press conference in New Delhi.
Gyanesh Kumar asked when the 45-day period of filing challenges is over, then why are they casting doubts over elections? What is the motive behind this?” Kumar asked.
The ECI does not discriminate between ruling and Opposition parties who are required to timely inform the ECI on any error found by them.
The Constitution permits only Indian citizens who are 18 years old to vote during polls.
The ECI has complied with the Supreme Court order within 56 hours of providing district-wise searchable lists of 65 lakh people whose names had been deleted, he said.
The ECI had embarked on Special Intensive Revision of Voter Rolls as per the demand of political parties for the last two decades seeking corrections in the Electoral Rolls.
All voters and political parties were contributing to remove errors in the Draft List. The ECI has received 28,370 claims and objections and 15 days are left for filing objections and claims.
Political parties, Booth Level Agents (BLAs) should submit claims and objections in these 15 days, he said.
He said all Booth Level Officers, BLAs and voters are getting testimonials which are either not reaching the political parties, or a deliberate attempt is being made to spread misinformation, the CEC said. Regarding the demand for machine-readable voter rolls, Kumar said, “The Supreme Court in 2019 said that voter privacy can be breached. There is a difference between Machine-Readable voter lists and searchable by EPIC Electoral Rolls. He said an intensive probe will be conducted to remove non Indian Citizens from Electoral Rolls.
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