ECI urges parties to scrutinise electoral rolls on time, cites transparency as hallmark

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has reiterated that political parties must actively participate at every stage of the electoral roll preparation process to ensure accuracy and transparency.

In a press note issued on Saturday, the Commission underlined that the electoral system for Parliament and Assembly elections is a “multi-layered decentralised construct” and that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) hold responsibility for the correctness of the rolls.

The ECI pointed out that draft electoral rolls are first shared digitally and physically with political parties and uploaded on its website for public scrutiny. A one-month period is then provided for filing claims and objections before final rolls are published. The final rolls are again shared with political parties and uploaded online.

The Commission also highlighted a two-tiered appeals process for disputes — the first before District Magistrates and the second before Chief Electoral Officers of States and Union Territories.

While emphasising that “utmost transparency is the hallmark of electoral roll preparation,” the ECI expressed concern that some political parties and their Booth Level Agents (BLAs) failed to scrutinise the rolls at the appropriate stage. Instead, issues are often raised later, including complaints about errors in past rolls.

“The appropriate time to raise any issue with the Electoral Rolls would have been during the Claims and Objections period,” the Commission stated, adding that timely feedback from political parties could have helped EROs correct mistakes before elections.

The Commission reaffirmed that it welcomes scrutiny of electoral rolls by both political parties and citizens. Such oversight, it said, helps Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) and EROs to remove errors and “purify the rolls,” which has been the Commission’s consistent objective.