Moa Jamir
The draft electoral roll published on September 20 offers the first consolidated picture of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Nagaland. Its numbers merit close scrutiny as the exercise is ultimately about who remains on the electoral roll, who is left out, and why.
The draft roll contains 12,06,457 electors 11,99,456 general and 7,001 service electors, indicating a reduction of 1,50,751 from the pre-SIR figure of 13,57,208.
The enumeration exercise, meanwhile, identified 1,57,752 electors under the Absent, Shifted, Dead, and Duplicate (ASDD) categories comprising of 28,944 deceased, 1,23,749 absent/permanently shifted/others and 5,059 duplicate or multiple registrations.
The distinction is important. ASDD should not simply be read as final deletions, nor should the net reduction be equated with ASDD cases alone. The one-month claims and objections starting September process now gives eligible electors an opportunity to seek inclusion.
The composition of ASDD is also noteworthy. The largest category is the 1,23,749 classified as absent, permanently shifted or others. The CEO office has said this includes people who may have enrolled elsewhere, could not be found, did not submit forms by September 14, or were unwilling to register.
This makes communication particularly important. The last consolidated status available during the house-to-house exercise was September 13, a day before the exercise ended. There was no comparable statewide update until publication of the draft roll on September 20.
A week may not be long administratively, but in an exercise involving more than 13.5 lakh electors, regular updates can reduce uncertainty about the status of enumeration and what different categories mean. Such communication should accompany the exercise throughout, rather than only at major milestones.
The need is greater as SIR enters its next phase. At the September 21 press conference, the CEO office said nearly five lakh electors could come under further verification because of discrepancies in mapping with the 2005 electoral roll.
That is a sizeable proportion of the electorate. Notices, hearings and documentary verification will therefore be an important test. A mapping discrepancy, however, is not a finding of ineligibility. Affected electors must have a clear opportunity to establish their eligibility and correct errors.
There is also a larger question: will the final e-roll leave Nagaland with a cleaner and more reliable electoral register?
Nagaland’s electoral rolls have long been accompanied by anecdotal concerns about multiple or duplicate entries. Against that backdrop, the identification of only 5,059 duplicate or multiple registrations is striking. Does this indicate that duplication was less extensive than commonly assumed, or does it reflect the limitations of the identification exercise? The final outcome and greater clarity on methodology should help answer that.
A cleaner electoral roll is not simply one with fewer names. It is one in which eligible electors are correctly included, deceased and duplicate entries are removed through due process, and those wrongly left out have a meaningful opportunity for restoration.
The CEO office has repeatedly stressed that no genuine voter will be omitted. That assurance should remain central. SIR should be about streamlining the electoral roll, not de-franchisement. November 22, when the final roll is scheduled for publication, will provide the first full measure of whether the exercise has delivered a cleaner electoral roll without leaving genuine electors behind. However, the steps to the final list begin now, with claims, objections, notices, hearings and, above all, clear communication.
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