Panaji: The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Goa has convened a high-level meeting of election officials and departmental heads on Monday to finalise a strategy for implementing the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) newly mandated two-tier verification process, as the state prepares for hearings on claims and objections involving over 50,000 ‘unmapped’ voters in North Goa alone.
The move follows ECI directions requiring rigorous, multi-departmental authentication of identity documents submitted during hearings, aimed at preventing fraud and strengthening the integrity of electoral rolls.
Unmapped voters — whose names appear in the 2025 electoral roll but not in the 2002 reference list used for the Special Intensive Revision — are required to submit one of 13 ECI-approved identity documents, along with birth certificates of self and parents, depending on their date of birth.
Claims and objections can be filed until January 15, 2026. All cases are to be resolved by February 7, ahead of the final publication of the electoral roll on February 14, 2026.
Hearings are scheduled to begin on Tuesday at 19 venues across the North district, where 300 cases will be taken up daily from 9 am to 5 pm, split equally between Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs). Notices have been issued to unmapped voters, granting a seven-day window to appear, with a maximum of two hearings per case.
Under the ECI’s guidelines, all documents submitted during hearings must be uploaded to
the ECINet platform and forwarded by the District Electoral Officer (DEO) to the original issuing authorities for verification within five days. Documents issued outside Goa will be routed through the CEO to the respective State CEOs, adding to administrative complexity.
Election officials acknowledged practical challenges, citing the absence of standard operating procedures and the tight verification timeline, particularly given the volume of documents requiring cross-checking for citizenship and date-of-birth validation.
