Bhubaneswar: Chief Electoral Officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal today convened an all-party meeting with the workers of all recognised political parties for preparation of the final voter list for the upcoming General Election 2024.
The Chief Electoral Officer stated in the meeting that the cooperation of all the political parties is absolutely necessary for the preparation of an error-free voter list.
According to the instructions of the Election Commission of India, 01/01/2024 has been taken as the qualification date and the special summary program of the voter list is going on. The next day List of registered voters will be published on 27/10/2023 (Friday) and the final list of voters will be published next January. The Election Commission of India informed the Chief Election Officer in the meeting that it will be published on 05/01/2024 (Friday).
The list of registered voters will be published in the offices of all the voter registration officers and sub-collectors of the state and the political parties at the district level can get individual copies of the list of registered voters from the voter registration officers, the chief election officer informed in the meeting. To correct the error in the published voter list, Mr. Dhal, informed in the meeting that the complaints of the voters will be received from 27/10/2023 till 09/12/2023 and all the objections will be heard and resolved by 26/12/2023.
In order to include all the eligible voters in the voter list in the age group of 18-19 years, the Election Commission has taken special measures to designate two Sundays, namely November 5th and November 19th, and two Saturdays, November 11th and November 25th, as special campaign days in the coming month of November.
The Chief Electoral Officer has informed that booth-level officials will be present in each booth of the state during these 4 special campaign days and provide assistance in including the names of all eligible voters in the voter list. Due to the increase in the number of voters in the state (maximum 1500 voters per day), the Election Commission has set up 216 new polling stations. Now the total polling stations in the state are 37809 and earlier it was 37606. If the booth-level agents appointed by the political parties at the booth level provide the list of dead voters through the BLO, they will be verified and the names of the dead voters will be removed from the voter list.
Apart from this, voters can check whether their name is on the voter list or not by sitting at home through their mobile phones. The Chief Electoral Officer informed the all-party meeting that by going to the website of the Election Commission and using the voter helpline app, one can get the complete details of the voter by using the number on the photo identity card.