Election Commission, ERO-NET and the Algorithms of Exclusion Behind SIR |
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A lot has been written about how the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is excluding millions of voters from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal to Tamil Nadu. Yet, this form of voter exclusion is not new and is not recent with its origins to voter deletions in Telangana. The idea of cleaning up electoral rolls with digitisation and de-duplication using Aadhaar is an important exercise that has eventually led to the creation of the Electoral Registration Officer Network (ERO-NET).
The way ERO-NET is designed is an important aspect why large scale deletions of voter rolls are occurring beyond the Election Commission’s arbitrary implementation of this process.
To understand ERO-NET, one needs to look into the role of EROs in the process of making electoral rolls. The electoral registration officer is the sole authority responsible for maintenance of electoral rolls. When it comes to the electoral roll, they can add or remove anyone after due process is followed under the Representation of People’s Act, 1951. The ERO is the final authority on this matter – they need not be directed by the chief electoral officer or the chief election commissioner.
The making of electoral rolls is designed to be a community exercise that has to be transparent, allowing anyone to inspect, audit electoral rolls, file requests for additions of voters, removal of voters who are dead, shifted away from the constituency. This was always a decentralised exercise, with the ERO only responsible for his constituency. However,........