CEO rules out general inquiry

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 11. The Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. P.J. Thomas, on Friday ruled out a general inquiry into deletion of thousands of names from the voters' list in the State.

Names had been deleted either on the ground that they were dead or had moved out. However, there were widespread complaints that names of living persons who had not changed their residences for the last several years had been deleted from the voters' list. Some of the deletions were alleged to have been done even after the final list was published on April 23.

Replying to questions from presspersons in this regard, the Chief Electoral Officer said that specific complaints could be inquired into. He did not propose to refer the matter to the Election Commission for action.

He said that the existing arrangements were sufficient for revision of electoral rolls. However, he could not give ready answers on how many were deleted from the rolls and why. ``All questions cannot be answered,'' he said.

He said that action had been taken in some complaints about electoral malpractices. There was no directive from the Commission in the case involving the Speaker, Mr. M. Vijayakumar. The request for repoll at one of the polling booths of the Harippad Assembly constituency has been rejected.

Meanwhile, the Election Department has not been able to release accurate figures regarding polling percentages until this evening, though the deadline fixed was 7.00 a.m. There are indications that the information systems set up for dissemination of the information is working in an inefficient manner. Counting is to begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday. Though results are expected by noon, it is to be seen whether the detailed results would be available by evening, considering the fact that even the number of people who voted in the election in the State is yet to be known.

The Chief Electoral Officer gave a polling percentage of 73.15 this morning. However, this did not tally with the constituency- wise percentage and size of electorate put out by the Election Department. If the figures relating to the electorate and constituency-wise percentage are correct, the overall voting percentage for the entire State would be around 72.3.

This means that nearly 157 lakh people had exercised their franchise against the 147 lakh in 1996. The size of the electorate had gone up from 206.33 lakhs in 1996 to 216.90 lakhs in 2001. (The size of the electorate had gone up to 228.26 lakhs by January this year. From that list, about 11.36 lakh names were deleted).

The district-wise voting percentage worked out to be the following on the basis of the number of voters and the constituency-wise percentage released by the Department: Thiruvananthapuram: 65, Kollam: 70.46, Kottayam: 72.71, Alappuzha: 73.46, Pathanamthitta: 72.63, Idukki: 73.78, Ernakulam: 68.93, Thrissur: 72.81. Palakkad: 74.06, Malappuram: 70.67, Kozhikode: 76.12, Wayanad: 81.57, Kannur: 77.80 and Kasaragod: 74.06.

The polling percentage in Wayanad has shot up from 69.69 in 1996 to 81.57 this time because the revision of electoral rolls was done very thoroughly here. All dead and non- resident voters figuring in the list were eliminated and identity cards issued to almost all voters.

The lowest voting percentage, according to available figures, was in Thiruvananthapuram West constituency, where the CMP leader, Mr. M. V. Raghavan, was fighting Mr. Antony Raju of the Kerala Congress(J). It appears that there was considerable antipathy among the voters in Thiruvananthapuram West.

This constituency attracted much media attention. However, voters saw the spectacle of the PDP on one side and a section of the BJP on the other supporting Mr. Raghavan. Many voters were also disillusioned with Mr. Antony Raju who was their MLA for the last five years.

Besides, the populace of the capital city, with a high proportion of Government employees, was generally not very keen to vote as is evident from the polling percentage in the neighbouring constituencies also.

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Section  : State Elections
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