Nearly 3,000 found ineligible to be included on voters’ list in Ernakulam

Close to 3,000 people, most of them dead, have been found ineligible to be included in the final voters’ list in Ernakulam district with the hearing for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls entering its final phase.

The hearing process has almost been completed in the district even as six days remain to complete the process as per official deadline. As of Sunday, 2,994 people from all the 14 Assembly constituencies in the district have been found ineligible to be included in the final rolls, as per official figures. Hearing remains to be completed for only less than 700 voters, officials said.

They include people who died during the enumeration phase, those who have been found shifted to other constituencies and voters who have relinquished Indian citizenship. A split of the data was yet to emerge. At least 154 voters in the district have been found acquired citizenship of other countries, according to officials involved in the hearing exercise.

Thripunithura Assembly constituency has the most number of voters found ineligible with 624 set to be out of the rolls. It is followed by Kalamassery (291) and Piravom (275). Kunnathunad has the least number of ineligible voters – 71.

The data suggests the fears that a large number of voters may go out of the rolls due to the alleged hasty conduct of the SIR may be out of place. “We have been taking proactive steps throughout the exercise and efforts are going on at the booth level to add new voters and ensure that no eligible person is left out,” a district official said.

A total of 4,06,389 voters in the district were identified as those requiring verification at the hearing phase. They included those who were in the unmapped category — voters whose details could not be linked to the base list of 2002, and those found with logical discrepancies in the list, including errors in names and other details.

As on February 4, a total of 19,021 persons were excluded from the voter rolls across the State after hearings.