Shillong, Oct 8: As Meghalaya prepares for the 2025 special summary revision of electoral roll , Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) BDR Tiwari informed an ambitious plan to ensure the state’s voter rolls are not only accurate but also inclusive of the next generation of voters. In a meeting with political parties on Tuesday, Tiwari emphasized the critical importance of both transparency and youth engagement, setting the stage for a meticulous special summary revision of the electoral roll, aimed at correcting errors and registering young voters in time for National Voters’ Day 2025.
Speaking to reporters, Tiwari said that meetings with political parties at CEO and all district election officers (DEOs) level will be held on regular basis till publication of final electoral rolls.
Two copies of complete set of draft electoral rolls and final electoral rolls immediately after draft and final publication respectively shall be supplied free of cost to ‘recognized political parties’ in public meeting.
Tiwari said that as per existing policy of the Election Commission of India, the Annual Summary Revision with reference to the 1st January of the coming year as qualifying date is normally conducted in the later part of each year in all states/UTs so that final publication of electoral roll is made in the first week of January of the succeeding year.
As per the provisions in Section 14 of the Representation of People Act, 1950, four qualifying dates (st January, 1st April, 1st July & 1st October) are available and therefore Annual Summary Revision is conducted with reference to 1st January of the succeeding year as qualifying date, along with seeking advance application for three subsequent qualifying dates that is 1st April, 1st July and 1st October of the year.
“The Commission has decided to carry out Annual Summary Revision with reference to January 1, 2025 as the qualifying date in all States & UTs except Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and UT of Jammu & Kashmir, in such a manner that the electoral rolls are finally published much before National Voters’ Day (January 25 of every year) so that EPICs generated for new electors especially young voters (18-19 years) can be distributed to them in ceremonial manner on the day of NVD,” he said.
Stating that there are two stages of conducting revision exercise of electoral roll, namely, pre-revision activities and revision activity, the CEO said that for the purpose of achieving good quality electoral rolls, pre-revision activities are given equal weightage as that of revision activity.
On the schedule of the special summary revision of electoral roll 2025, the CEO said under the pre-revision activities, the House to House (H2H) verification through BLOs, rationalization/re-arrangement of polling stations, removal of discrepancies int eh electoral roll/EPIC (eg dead, duplicates, shifted electors, etc) and improvement quality of photographs, wherever necessary – have started from August 20 and will end on October 18. Preparation of integrated draft roll with reference to January 1, 2025 as the qualifying date will be completed by October 28.
In regard to revision activities, he said publication of integrated draft electoral roll will be on October 29, period for filing claims & objections will be from October 29 to November 28, special campaign dates have been fixed on November 15 and 16 & November 21 and 22, disposal of claims and objections by December 24 and final publication of electoral roll will be on January 6, 2025.
Meanwhile, Tiwari also informed that a total of 1354 have been identified as ‘duplicate electors’, which have their names enrolled in two different places, while 23161 have been marked ‘expired’ as on October 8.
Of the total 22,41,984 electors as on October 8, 21,79,106 elector were found and verified.
The house to house verified percentage is 97.20%, he added.