Voters in Kerala awaiting SIR verification to get week’s time before EC hearings

Voters called for hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll will get a week’s time to be ready, election officials said here on Saturday.

Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U. Kelkar said the stipulation is that a minimum of one week’s time should be given.

Voters can use this period to mobilise the necessary documents and be ready, he said.

Notice will be served on voters in the draft roll who could not be mapped with the 2002 SIR list. This list has 19.32 lakh voters in all. But election officials are trying to limit the number of hearings.

At his weekly meeting with political parties here on Saturday, Mr. Kelkar said the decision on whether hearings are actually needed – including in cases related to the unmapped voters and cases of inconsistencies in the entries in draft – are taken by the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) and Assistant EROs (AERO), Mr. Kelkar said.

Parties vie for online hearings

Political parties including the CPI(M) and the Congress urged the CEO to allow online hearings for the voters and nominees for the aged and bedridden patients.

On the entries in the ’absent, shifted or dead’ (ASD) list, Mr. Kelkar said if any of these individuals are traced, they can be added to the rolls by applying afresh through Form 6 accompanied by a declaration.

Mr. Kelkar said that only “100% ineligible voters” will be deleted from the rolls.

The period for filing claims and objections lasts till January 22, 2026. The notice phase (hearings and verification) is till February 14. The final rolls will be published on February 21.

At the meeting, M.K. Rahman of the Congress said a voter in the No: 67 polling station in Thiruvananthapuram, named Ayyappan, who has been listed as ‘Dead’ in the ASD list is actually alive. The CEO said he will look into the matter.

Mr. Kelkar said that NORKA has agreed to organise a meeting of organisations representing overseas electors from the State on January 9. At the weekly SIR meetings, political parties had repeatedly demanded that such a meeting be held.

Meanwhile, a few political parties also objected to inclusion of the caste certificate among the ‘List of 12 documents allowed’ during the hearing phase.