Panaji : Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said that he will request the Election Commission of India (ECI) for time extension for the special intensive revision (SIR) process following the demand from the Opposition MLAs who cited various flaws in the exercise.
The Opposition legislators were speaking during the calling attention on SIR by Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar.
They pointed out that January 15 was the last day for submitting claims, objections, and corrections for electors to update details or apply for inclusion/deletion.
“This is the 14th time that the process of SIR has been undertaken. The intention behind SIR is simple: one citizen one vote. Fake entries, duplicate voters, including non-Indian citizens will be removed. There are a few people who have five EPIC cards and their names are included in the voting lists of five states,” Sawant said.
“The Election Commission is coming up with an app which can identify a dual voter within a state, and later it will identify nationally,” Sawant explained, assuring that “the voting right of Mul Goenkars will be protected”.
Opposition leader Yuri Alemao said a genuine voter can’t lose their franchise simply because they were not at home when the BLO visited. There should be transparency in the SIR exercise.
“The door-to-door SIR process conducted within a short window can’t become the sole test of voter’s existence. Fear and anxiety among voters is not political imagination. It is the direct result of unclear rules, hurried timelines, and arbitrary ground-level practices during SIR,” Alemao reckoned.
He said that over one lakh voters have been marked for deletion mainly because enumeration forms were not collected.
Aldona MLA Carlos Ferreira said the state should tell ECI that the exercise is not correct.
“Tell them to extend the time for filing objections,” Ferreira demanded.
St Andre legislator Viresh Borkar highlighted the issue pertaining to the verification of birth documents, stating that many Goans do not have birth certificates.
“The timeframe has to be extended, or else it will affect Goans,” Borkar said.
