Determined to save voting right, people turn up for SIR hearing

Three women – a Gulf returnee, a homemaker and a young professional – feared they might lose what makes them powerful in a democracy, their right to vote. They had fallen in the ‘no mapping’ category following the enumeration for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls. On Wednesday, they walked out of their respective SIR hearing camps, reassured of their right to vote when Assembly elections take place in a few months.

The three women are among the 8,195 ‘unmapped’ electors who turned up for the hearing in the first two days of the process in the district. Though they were included in the draft voter rolls, they could not be mapped to the base list of 2002. The process appeared hassle-free with people determined to get their voting right reinstated, though many of them were still unclear about why they were being made to undergo the identification exercise.

“I was born and brought up at Thumpamon in Pathanamthitta and moved to Mannar after marriage. From there I went abroad with my husband and lived there long before returning. I was not enrolled in the 2002 voters’ list. Though I had shared details of my relatives from the 2002 rolls, somehow I was added in the no mapping list. Today, I was called for a hearing and I produced my passport before the officials. I have been told that my name will be in the fresh list so that I can vote,” Renuka Ouseph, the Qatar-returnee, said.

Ms. Ouseph, accompanied by her husband, was at the Sree Narayana Gurudeva Nursery School auditorium at Mamangalam, where the hearing took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Of the 112 people called for the hearing at the auditorium on Wednesday, 106 had already turned up by 3 p.m. “We were not expecting such a good turnout because during the enumeration phase, we had faced difficulty tracing many in urban areas,” an official said.

Joy Paul, also from Mamangalam, was at the centre to get the verification done for his wife and daughter. “The BLO had come to our home and completed the enumeration works. I don’t really understand why we were called for hearing,” he said. Mr. Paul was among the many who represented their family members for the hearing and got the works done without much hurdle. The officials who conducted the hearing had to take a photo with the ‘summoned’ and upload it online. In cases where a person is not able to turn up for the hearing, the officials have been authorised to videoconference them and take a screenshot of the meeting.

Chandrika M.K., a homemaker, said what she understood was that her name was removed from the 2002 list after she shifted from Eroor to Edappally sometime ago. A young woman, who did not wish to be named, said her name could not be mapped with the 2002 list as her parents had not been enrolled. They were at the hearing centre set up at the Government Lower Primary School, Padivattom. A Palarivattom resident who was at the hearing centre at the Kochi Corporation’s zonal office at Edappally said his wife’s details were not mapped to the 2002 list as he sent them to a wrong number instead of the BLO concerned.

In Ernakulam district, the maximum number of electors appeared for hearing in Thrikkakara assembly constituency (969), followed by Kochi (943) and Thripunithura (870). The process was yet to pick up in Kothamangalam, where only 56 appeared for hearing in the first two days.