Election Commission to kick off all-party consultations to address poll issues

NEW DELHI : All-party meetings and interactions will be hosted across the country by the 36 state/UT chief electoral officers (CEOs), each of the 788 district election officers (DEOs) and as many as 4,123 electoral registration officers (EROs) until this month-end to resolve outstanding and emergent poll-related issues, flagged from time to time by the political parties.
Chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar had, during the CEOs conference earlier this month, directed that election officers at the state, district and polling station level hold regular all-party consultations to hear the parties’ concerns and suggestions regarding electoral rolls, EPICs or other aspects of polls. “Such meetings across the country will help resolve any outstanding and emergent issues raised by the political parties at the grassroot level itself,” the EC said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the consultation process will be completed by March 31, 2025.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission’s offer to train political party representatives and their appointed booth level agents (BLAs) watching the electoral updation process, on the due process as per electoral laws, has been welcomed by political parties. The latter have agreed to nominate their representatives and BLAs for the EC’s training programmes, which will familiarise them with the process as well as their role in ensuring the purity of rolls by raising claims and objections against ‘flawed’ entries in draft rolls and also appealing to the DEO and CEO if dissatisfied with the final rolls.
The EC is also awaiting suggestions from the political parties on matters concerning the conduct of polls, the deadline being April 30, 2025. The poll body has already written to the chiefs of all recognised parties to indicate a convenient time for discussions with it.
Stating that EC, with Gyanesh Kumar at the helm, had put the entire election machinery firmly on course for promoting participation of all electors and ensuring a pleasant experience for them at the polling stations,” the commission on Thursday said its “bold and far-reaching initiatives span the entire gamut of elections and encompass all the key stakeholders in a participatory manner”.
The initiatives taken by EC comprising Kumar, S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, include start of technical consultations with UIDAI on linking electors photo identity card (EPIC) with aadhaar, ending duplication of EPIC number across the country over the next three months, and regular updation of the voter list in close coordination with the birth and death registration authorities.
At the CEO’s conference on March 4-5, 28 stakeholders were mapped along with their statutory role, and decision taken to prepare digital training kits in multiple Indian languages for easy absorption and effective training of frontline functionaries. Animated videos and integrated dashboard will provide a digital push to training, the poll body said on Thursday.