Shillong, May 15: Political parties on Friday flagged issues of dual registration, illegal immigration, and border area enumeration after attending a meeting chaired by the Chief Electoral Officer on the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.
United Democratic Party vice president Allantry F Dkhar said the party sought clarity on the exercise, last conducted in 2005.
“We were just concerned about the terms and conditions of the special intensive revision (SIR). This has been conducted way back in 2005. That was the last time. So the CEO and his team were kind enough to explain the entire process with regards to Meghalaya,” Dkhar said after the meeting.
He said the UDP’s main concerns were voters in sensitive areas.
“Our concerns were the border areas and also certain areas, especially the issue of dual registration across the inter-state and also the illegal immigrants that have managed to inhabit parts of our state,” he said.
Dkhar added that the election office had addressed those worries. “However, the state election commission’s team has assured us, they have shown us through a presentation that all that was being done to make sure that there are no doubtful voters. There are no voters, who are not citizens of the state,” he said.
On the party’s next steps, he said, “The time table has been rolled and we will keep a good eye on how things are being conducted for which we will be appointing booth level agents (BLAs) from our own respective parties and I hope this exercise in Meghalaya would serve the requirement of the state of having genuine voters in its electoral roll.”
An NPP leader who also attended the briefing said the party raised questions on acceptable documents. “They briefed us about SIR and whatever is needed, what documents that are required,” the leader said.
“We raised some points from the party, we are concerned with these local authority’s certificates which as has been clarified by the CEO that they never accepted those given by the headmen but they say like other documents like ST, they have sent to Delhi and central government and the CEO is yet to get any response,” the NPP leader said.
“As we are told it is like that only,” he added, referring to the non-recognition of headmen-issued certificates by the ECI.
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