17-plus can apply in advance for enrolment as voters; Aadhar may be linked to voter ID

Shillong, August 1:  The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Meghalaya, FR Kharkongor today informed that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has made provision for 4 new additional qualifying dates available for registration of voters i.e April 1^st, July 1^st, October 1^st and January 1^st-which essentially means 4 new opportunities to enrol in a year.

It has been done to expand opportunities for enrolling as opposed to the single qualifying date of 1^st January earlier. Earlier on, a large number of youth who had completed 18 years after 1^st January, had 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.

Simultaneously an advance application facility for 17-plus youngsters will also be available from the date of draft publication of Electoral Roll, which is fixed on November 9^th this year. The CEO also conveyed that new modified user friendly and simpler forms 6,7,8 are also being launched from today (August 1, 2022)

A single Form 8 has been devised for correction of entries, if required. A new facility is the introduction of Form 6B for voluntary submission of Aadhar by the new intending applicants for linking voter card with Aadhar.

It was, however, clearly underscored by the CEO, that an applicant will not be denied inclusion of his/her name in the Electoral Roll nor his name deleted for inability to furnish or intimate Aadhar Number.

The CEO also informed that w.e.f today, a time-bound drive is being launched for collection of Aadhar numbers of existing electors which is purely voluntary and being done so with the objective of establishing identity of electors and authentication of entries in Electoral Roll.

The CEO also stressed that focus on removing demographically and photo similar entries would continue.

It was also informed that one-month period will be available for citizens to file claims, and objections, in the draft electoral roll and special camps will be organized by the Office of CEO &DEOs to ensure that the electoral roll is published on 5^th January 2023, as fixed by the Election Commission of India