Ex-MLA demands probe in to faulty electoral rolls that keep many from voting

Mangaluru: Former Mangaluru City South MLA J R Lobo while expressing anguish at what he said were faulty electoral rolls in the assembly constituency he represented, demanded that the Election Commission take immediate steps to link the rolls to Aadhaar. “Electoral rolls should be generated automatically based on such a linkage, and this is the only way to purge the system of inconsistencies that creep in the preparation of the rolls,” he said.
Basing this demand on what he said were mass deletion of names of voters in the final voters list published ahead of polling, that came to light on the voting day, Lobo told reporters on Thursday that an average of 20-25 such deletions have surfaced in each booth in the city south constituency alone. “Names of people who voted in assembly elections in 2018 and whose names figured in the voters list published on January 16 have gone missing,” he said.

Referring to two such specific cases, Lobo said voters with EPICs NUX 5206834 and NUX 5206750, who voted in assembly polls last year and whose names figured in the January 16 list, found their names deleted in the latest list when they reached the polling booths. Noting that election results have been decided even based on the margin of a single vote in the past, Lobo said such mass deletions without giving notice to the person concerned is a criminal act.

In booth 55 at Bikkarnakatte, Lobo said the electoral roll has 942 voters as against 1,172 voters shown in the Election Commission website. How did these 230 names get deleted and on whose instructions? Lobo wondered, adding he sensed a conspiracy in the manner in which names of people of certain communities have been systematically deleted. “We demand that the EC and chief electoral officer probe the matter threadbare,” he said.

“Revenue authorities denying voting rights to people residing in buildings that are yet to get completion certificate for various reasons on grounds that the building does not have door number too is baffling,” he said. “When city corporation authorities allow shops to function on the basis of temporary licences, it makes no sense for them to deny voting rights to people merely on grounds that they reside in a building without a completion certificate,” he said.