Delhi (The Stellar News): On Thursday the Election Commission of India said that the citizens above 17 years can apply in advance for having their names enrolled in the voters list and not necessarily have to await the pre-requisite criterion of attaining age of 18 years on 1st January of a year.
CEOs/EROs/AEROs of all sates have been asked by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey have directed to work out tech-enabled solutions such that the youth are facilitated to file their advance applications with reference to three subsequent qualifying dates- 1 April, 1 July, and 1 October and not just 1 January.
“The Electoral Roll will be updated every three months and eligible youngsters can be registered in the next quarter year of the year in which he/she has attained the qualifying age of 18 years”, the election body said.
The ECI said that in the current round of annual revision of electoral roll, 2023, any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by 1 April, 1 July, and 1 October of 2023 can also be submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of electoral roll.
According to the existing policy, revision of electoral rolls with reference to 1 January of the coming year, as the qualifying date, was usually done in the later part of each year in all States/UTs (normally in the last quarter of a year) so that the final publication of the electoral roll is made in the first week of January of the succeeding year.
Due to this, a large number of youngsters who completed 18 years after 1 January has to wait for Special Summary Revision of the next year for enrolment and were not able to participate in elections held in the intervening period, the ECI said. The poll body said that the newly modified forms which are simpler and more user friendly, will come into force on 1 August, 2022.
Report: Deepanjot Kaur (Under Training)
