Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U. Kelkar
| Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN
With the house-to-house enumeration phase of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll ending on Thursday (December 18, 2025) in Kerala, election officials are planning a drive to enrol new voters once the draft SIR roll gets published on December 23.
The special drive will focus on enrolling new voters who have turned 18 years of age and other citizens who have not yet enrolled, Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar said.
Election officials have already received 2.92 lakh applications in Form 6 which is the application form for fresh enrollments. As many as 15,157 applications have also been received in Form 6A, which is the form for overseas electors. These applications will be processed after December 23, Mr. Kelkar said.
On the enumeration phase, Mr. Kelkar said digitisation of the enumeration forms touched 100% at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
The number of uncollectable forms (absent, shifted, dead (ASD) voters) stands at 24.81 lakh. Of this, deceased voters account for 6.49 lakh. Untraceable voters number 6.89 lakh, shifted voters 8.21 lakh, duplicated names 1.34 lakh and others, 1.86 lakh. “This is about 8.91% of the existing electorate,” Mr. Kelkar said.
Following a request from political parties, Mr. Kelkar’s office has already published the ASD list online on its website. An updated ASD list, incorporating corrections and including voters who have been tracked down, will be published alongside the draft SIR rolls on December 23. The list has also been handed over to the booth-level agents of political parties so that they can also help in tracing the missing voters, Mr. Kelkar said.
Claims and objections
Claims and objections with respect to the draft rolls can be filed from December 23 to January 22, 2026. The notice and hearing period lasts from December 23 to February 14. The final electoral roll will be published on February 21. Nonetheless, as per election rules, additions and deletions in the roll can be made till the final day of filing the nominations for the 2026 Assembly elections, Mr. Kelkar said.
Hearings and appeals
In case a voter’s name is excluded from the roll after the hearing, the first appeal can be filed before the District Election Officer (District Collector) within 15 days of the ERO’s order. The second appeal can be filed before the CEO within 30 days of the Collector’s order.
30,498 polling booths for Assembly polls
Kerala will have 30,498 polling stations for the 2026 Assembly elections. In addition to the 25,468 existing stations, 5,030 new polling stations will be added, Mr. Kelkar said.
Published – December 18, 2025 04:26 pm IST
