Maharashtra poll chief sought more discretion for officials in voter-roll software

Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam sought changes to the Election Commission’s ECINet software during the state’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, according to The Indian Express report cited in the supplied material. In a September 24 letter, Chockalingam asked for five changes intended to allow Electoral Registration Officers to use powers available to them under election law.

The requests included an option to exempt voters from personal hearings when satisfactory documents had been submitted. He also sought flexibility for voters to provide documents outside the 13 listed in revision notices, citing people from tribal, homeless and sex-worker communities who might not possess documents on the indicative list. Other requests included allowing officers to resolve certain “logical discrepancy” cases themselves, making the upload of an extract from the previous intensive revision optional in such cases and issuing written instructions and frequently asked questions for officials.

The Election Commission has partly addressed the concerns. It decided that voters flagged for logical discrepancies would not need to appear personally for hearings and that Booth Level Officers could collect documents from their homes and upload them to ECINet. The commission also decided to review the platform through a committee headed by a senior Deputy Election Commissioner and including an independent expert from an IIT or IIIT.

The letter came amid reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected to aspects of the revision process and the centralisation of electoral-roll data. The Election Commission said differing views were normal and maintained that decisions had been unanimous.