SIR schedule in Nagaland, cropped from a campaign poster shared by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Nagaland, on its website and social media handles. (Image Courtesy: CEO Nagaland)
No fresh status report after Sept 13, the penultimate day of the house-to-house phase
Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 19
With Nagaland’s draft electoral roll under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) scheduled for publication on September 20, the status of nearly 1.60 lakh Enumeration Forms (EFs) recorded as ‘uncollectable’ remains unclear, with no fresh statewide update from the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nagaland after September 13.
The last available status, as of 6 pm on September 13, showed 1,57,451 EFs as uncollectable, accounting for 11.6% of the State’s 13,57,208 electors. Further, 11,98,989 EFs, or 88.34% were digitised, while 969 had been submitted online by electors.
The house-to-house enumeration phase concluded on September 14.
According to the CEO office’s August press note, the draft e-roll scheduled for publication on September 20 will comprise names of existing electors who submitted their duly filled EF to the Booth Level Officer (BLO) during the house-to-house enumeration period, as well as forms received online and verified by the BLO.
Names of other electors, from whom EFs are not received will not be included in the draft roll, it added.
However, it noted that electors unable to submit their forms within the stipulated period can seek inclusion during the claims and objections period (September 20 to October 20) by filing Form 6 along with the prescribed Declaration Form.
Accordingly, the 1,57,451 figure does not necessarily mean that an equivalent number of eligible electors will be excluded from the draft roll. ‘Uncollectable’ EFs could include cases where electors were unavailable, had shifted, or otherwise could not be reached during the enumeration exercise.
What remains unclear is how many EFs remained uncollectable after September 14, and how many names may therefore miss the draft list.
The CEO office on September 18 did issue a press release announcing the 38 new polling stations across the State, taking the total to 2,399, following rationalisation based on the house-to-house enumeration.
However, the update did not provide a fresh statewide status on EFs collection, digitisation or the uncollectable category, leaving the status of a sizeable section of the electorate unclear on the eve of draft publication.
In particular, there is no publicly available figure after September 13 showing whether the 1.57 lakh uncollectable EFs came down during the final day of the house-to-house exercise.
The one-month claims and objections period starting September 20 will allow electors left out of the draft to seek inclusion. The final e-roll is scheduled for publication on November 22, with October 1 as qualifying date.
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