'Vote Theft Cannot Happen…': EC Urges Parties To Flag Voter List Errors Before Sept 1

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday urged all political parties to point out mistakes in the draft electoral roll before September 1, stressing that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is ready to make corrections — but only within the prescribed timeline.

“I want to appeal to all the 12 political parties, whether they are national parties or state parties, to point out the mistakes in the draft list before 1 September," CEC Kumar said at a press briefing in Delhi.

He further said, “The Election Commission is ready to correct it, but not after 1 September, because after that, the same phase begins where the voter list is one thing and voting is another thing.”

"When a voter goes to vote and presses the button, he can press it only once. Vote theft cannot happen. A voter can cast his vote only once,” he explained. 

Bihar Special Intensive Revision Under Spotlight

The remarks came amid heavy criticism from the opposition regarding the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, where assembly elections are due later this year.

Kumar assured that the exercise was being conducted with the highest level of transparency and participation. “The truth is that step by step, all the stakeholders are committed, trying and working hard to make the SIR of Bihar a complete success.

When more than seven crore voters of Bihar are standing with the Election Commission, then neither can any question mark be raised on the credibility of the Election Commission nor on the credibility of the voters,” he said.

Open Doors, Transparent Process

Reiterating the Commission’s open approach, the CEC said the ECI was working in collaboration with voters, political parties, and booth-level officials.

“The doors of the Election Commission are always open for everyone equally. At the ground level, all the voters, all the political parties and all the booth-level officers are working together transparently, verifying, signing and also giving video testimonials,” Kumar added.

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However, he flagged concerns about a communication gap between ground-level representatives and party leadership.

“It is a matter of serious concern that these verified documents, testimonials of the district presidents of political parties and the BLOs nominated by them, are either not reaching their own state-level or national-level leaders, or an attempt is being made to spread confusion by ignoring the ground reality,” he said.

ECI Flags Delay in Raising Objections

Earlier, on August 16, the Election Commission had reminded political parties that the correct time to raise issues about errors in the rolls was during the “Claims and Objections” period.

“Recently, some political parties and individuals have raised issues about errors in the electoral rolls, including those prepared in the past. The appropriate time to raise any issue with the Electoral Rolls would have been during the Claims and Objections period of that phase,” the ECI said in an official release.

It stressed that both digital and physical copies of the electoral roll are shared with recognised parties after publication on the Commission’s website.

“Had these issues been raised at the right time through the right channels, it would have enabled the concerned SDM EROs to correct the mistakes, if genuine, before those elections,” the Commission noted.

Draft List Prepared, Claims Invited

According to the poll body, 1.6 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) have already prepared the draft voter list in Bihar. These lists were signed and verified by BLAs of different political parties. So far, voters have submitted 28,370 claims and objections.