Maharashtra Poll Chief Seeks More ERO Powers As ECINet Faces Scrutiny Over SIR

Amid the ongoing row over the functioning of the Election Commission, Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam has sought greater discretion for local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) during the notice phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), as NDTV reported.

Chockalingam has also sought four changes in the ECINet software, including for cases marked as “logical discrepancies”.

On September 26, after a full Commission meeting, the Election Commission partly responded to the demand by allowing EROs to exempt people flagged for logical discrepancies from personal hearings.

Chockalingam had also sought changes allowing EROs to handle such cases after a hearing and use more options while processing SIR notices. The demands echo concerns earlier raised by Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu over ECINet and the role of EROs, the Indian Express reported last week.

What Are Logical Discrepancy Cases?

A “logical discrepancy” arises when ECINet cannot link an elector to a parent or grandparent on the electoral roll from the last SIR because of issues such as a mismatch in a parent’s name or an age-related inconsistency.

The mismatch is not a finding that a person is not a voter. It is a data-linking issue within the system.

Chockalingam has sought greater discretion for EROs in handling such cases. He also wanted EROs to be able to exempt a person from a hearing if they are satisfied with the documents submitted.

EROs And Centralised Control

Each Assembly constituency has an ERO responsible for the electoral roll. These officers are generally SDM-level officials who prepare voter lists, hear claims and objections, and decide which names are included or deleted.

Sandhu had earlier raised concerns over centralised control of ERONet at the DG (IT) level. “It is strange,” he said, “that all the responsibilities regarding Electoral Roll lie on EROs, DEOs and CEOs as per law, but the access control has been centralised by DG(IT).”

The Election Commission said on September 26 that several portal upgrades had already been made based on inputs from State CEOs and that further flexibility required by field officers would be made operational.

Maharashtra is currently in the notice phase of the SIR. Its draft roll was published on August 31, while the final roll is due on November 16. Over two crore names were deleted from the draft list, Chockalingam said most were dead or shifted voters.