‘Ease of Voter Enrolment’ For Tripura Assembly Elections 2023.

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In view of forthcoming 13th General Election of Tripura Legislative Assembly in February 2023, the Chief Electoral Officer, Tripura has started up-dation of Voter List as per the instructions of the Election Commission of India.

For this purpose, draft Voter List was published on 9^th November 2022 for 60 Assembly Constituencies and 3,328 polling stations in the State. Total voters in the draft list are 27,33,891 with 13,80,181 males, 13,53,664 females and 46 transgenders. Election Department had appealed young voters who will attain 18 years on 01.01.2023 to register their names within 15^th December 2022.

During the revision of voter lists, the Election Department took several proactive steps to achieve ‘Ease of Voter Enrolment’ leading upto the Tripura Assembly Elections 2023.

House to House Visit of Booth Level Officers:

Booth Level Officers appointed in 3,328 polling stations have visited more than 10 Lakh households in the State over a period of one month. They had interaction with family members to find out new voters, shifted voters due to marriage, occupation and dead voters, if any. Information is collected in digital mode by Garuda app of the Election Commission.

Focus on Enrolment of Married Girls:

During the analysis of draft Voter list, it was observed that there is gap of more than 35,000 female voters in the age of 18-29. The main reason is delay in registration of married girls due to lack of documents in the in-law’s place of residence. Every BLO was instructed to prepare list of newly married girls and help them to collect documents and enroll on priority. Due to these efforts, registration of female voters this time is more than male voters by over 9000.

Enrolment of 17+ Voters in Special Camps in High Schools and Colleges:

As Election Commission has allowed advance registration of 17+ voters, special camps were held in High Schools and Colleges for Class XII students. More than 7000 youths of 17+ age have registered as prospective voters. They will be able to vote as and when they will attain 18 years of age.

Sharing of Register of Death Records:

Block Development Officers, CEOs of Urban Local Bodies and Sub-Zonal Officers of Autonomous District Council have shared the register to death records with the Booth Level Officers to delete the names of dead persons. This has resulted in removal of more than 40,000 dead voters from the voter list.

Weekly Hearing of Claims and Objections:

As soon as the claims and objections started arriving from 2nd week of November, the Chief Electoral Officer instructed Electoral Registration Officers (SDMs) to conduct two days-a-week hearing on regular basis. Due to regular hearings, the quality of decisions has improved leading to reduction of complaints and grievances. If any person is not able to attend the hearing, second chance was given to attend special hearing in SDM offices.

Appeal to the District Election Officers:

All cases where the applicants were not satisfied with the decisions of the EROs (SDMs) were facilitated to prefer appeal with the District Election Officers (District Magistrates) as per Rule 23 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

Record Numbers of Forms Received in Special Summary Revision 2023:

Between 9th November and 15th December 2022, total 1,29,362 persons applied in Form 6 for registration as voters in Tripura State, which is 20.09% higher than 1,07,719 applications received during 2018 Assembly Elections.

At the same time, 63,463 voters were identified who are either dead or shifted from the polling station areas compared to 42,574 such cases in 2018, an increase of 49.07%.

Major boost is seen in Form 8 through which the voters can apply for correction of names, address etc. as well as shifting of their names from one place to another. In Special Summary Revision 2023, total 82,592 persons have applied compared to 23,568 applications in 2018, an increase of 250.44%.

Overall, receipt of Form 6, 7 and 8 stands at 2,75,417 compared to 1,73,861 in 2018, which is an increase of 58.41%.

Regular Meetings with Political Parties and sharing of list of Claims and Objections:

Sub-Divisional Magistrates have conducted regular meetings with representatives of all political parties regarding steps taken to update the Voter List. The list of all claims and objections received is handed over to the representatives of political parties to maintain utmost transparency during the process.

As a result of simplified process of voter registration and proactive measures by the Election Department, it is expected that there will be net increase of more than 65,000 voters during the Special Summary Revision 2023 and maximum purification of the electoral rolls which will help in smooth conduct of elections with improved voter turn-out in the upcoming Assembly Elections in the State.

All the citizens and representatives of political parties have expressed satisfaction over the experience of the ‘Ease of Voter Enrolment’ during the Special Summary Revision 2023.