‘110 per cent’: CEC assures name exclusion complaints will be resolved before next LS polls

Ahmedabad: After the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, complaints received regarding name exclusions will be "110 per cent resolved" before the next Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said on Thursday.

During an event at the Ahmedabad Management Association, Kumar also said everyone has the right to criticise in a democracy.

"We should have stronger and stronger shoulders to take these bullets every single day," asserted the CEC, who is on a two-day visit to Gujarat.

Asked whether thousands of complaints received during the SIR exercise could be resolved before the next Lok Sabha elections, he confidently said, "110 per cent".

SIR had happened earlier in 2003-04, he added.

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"Our focus is to clean the roll of those who are absent, shifted, death, duplicate and foreigners. As a constitutional authority, we depend on documents. Regarding foreigners, we depend on documents. You have to provide your documents or your parents' documents to prove you are Indian," he said.

There can be two categories, either one does not have documents or one is a foreigner, Kumar opined.

"If your name is not in the electoral rolls, you can complaint to SDM. If it is rejected, you can appeal to the district collector, and a second appeal can be filed to the state CEO (Chief Electoral Officer). Then you can go to court," he said.

After SIR in some 12 states, poll authorities have received zero appeals against name deletion, Kumar said, adding that he monitors the process regularly.

The conditionality is that one has to be eligible, and the Constitution or the election commission cannot help "if you are not eligible", Kumar said.

"In a democracy everybody has the right to criticise. We should have stronger and stronger shoulders to take these bullets every single day," he said.

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He was replying to a question on whether a line can be drawn with regard to relentless criticism of the Election Commission of India by some that it affects the faith of common people in the constitutional body.

"I do not think we can draw a line. Any number of lines you can draw and every one of them will be breached. It is OK to take the criticism," he added.

India's election system is a vast and transparent mechanism that successfully keeps the world's largest democracy vibrant and is conducted in strict adherence to the Constitution, election laws, and the directives of the Election Commission of India, Kumar said in his speech at the event.

Organising Lok Sabha elections in a country with approximately 900 million (90 crore) voters constitutes the world's largest electoral exercise, he pointed out.

"Approximately 18 million (1.8 crore) personnel are engaged in election duties during general elections. The successful conduct of elections involving such a vast workforce and electorate stands as a testament to the unique capability of India's election system," he said.

The distinctive feature of India's electoral process is the participation of representatives from political parties and candidates at various stages, ranging from the preparation of the electoral roll to the actual voting and counting of votes, he said.

Such a system is absent in most of other democracies, Kumar said.

On a question about EVMs, Kumar said that they are like calculators not connected to the internet, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and cannot be hacked. PTI