Excellent opportunity for first time voters to include their names in voters list ahead of 2022 civic polls

@nag228

Mumbai: In view of the ensuing municipal corporation elections early next year, the State Election Commission of Maharashtra (SECM) in association with district collectors and municipal commissioners will undertake a voter awareness campaign between November 1 to November 30 urging eligible voters to enrol their names in the voters list. The drive will coincide with the special brief intensive revision of electoral rolls for Assembly constituencies undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, SECM election commissioner, UPS Madan stated that the special short-duration drive will enable eligible citizens to enrol their names in the electoral list. Also, names of the deceased voters or duplicate entries will be deleted from the existing list. Those who have shifted to other places can transfer their names to the list of the new area or place.

Eligible voters will be able to enrol their names in the Assembly constituency voters list. After the voter lists are published the process of delimitation of the civic electoral wards based on the voter population will be carried out by the SECM. The SECM uses the same voter list published by the EC while conducting civic polls.

The term of the sitting members of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner (BMC) corporators will end on March 7, 2022. Therefore, the polls are expected to be held in February.

Madan today interacted with the District Collectors and Municipal Commissioners through video conferencing to discuss the preparation of the voter awareness campaign to be implemented.

Chief Electoral Officer Shrikant Deshpande, State Election Commission Secretary Kiran Kurundkar, BMC Additional Commissioner, Suresh Kakani, Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Commissioner Vijay Suryavanshi, Chief Electoral Officer Sweep Advisor Dilip Shinde were present for this discussion.

Madan said that “the voter list of the assembly constituencies prepared by the Election Commission of India is used for the elections of Municipal Corporations, Nagar Parishads, Zilla Parishads, Samitis and Gram Panchayats.

All those citizens who have completed 18 years of age as on January 1, 2022 during the special brief revision program are eligible to register as voters. The enrolment drive will also allow people to delete the names of deceased voters or duplicate entries, make corrections in their addresses and names. In order to ensure that the message reaches out to more and more various ingenious means of communications besides print, electronic and social media will be used.

Kurundkar said that a large number of local body elections will be held in the near future. He added that this is the last chance to register as a voter or make amendments in the voter list. Kurundkar added that if all these processes are made easier, there will be a good response from the citizens.