The Election Commission has also made the registration forms more user friendly and simpler.
New Delhi: Now, 17+-year-old youngsters can apply in advance to have their names enrolled in the voters’ list and not await the pre-requisite criterion of attaining the age of 18 years as on January 1 of a year, the Election Commission of India said on Thursday.
ECI, led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey, directed the CEOs/EROs/AEROs of all the states to work out tech-enabled solutions such that the youth are facilitated to file their advance applications with reference to three subsequent qualifying dates i.e. April 1, July 1 and October 1.
“Henceforth, the Electoral Roll will be updated every quarter and eligible youngsters can be registered in the next quarter of the year in which he/she has attained the qualifying age of 18 years. After getting registered, he/she will be issued an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC). For the current round of annual revision of electoral roll, 2023, any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by April 1, July 1 and October 1 of 2023 can also submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of electoral roll,” the EC said in a statement.
As per the existing policy, revision of electoral rolls with reference to January 1 of the coming year as the qualifying date was done normally in the later part of each year in all states and UTs (normally in the last quarter of a year) so that final publication of the electoral rolls is made in the first week of January of the succeeding year. This meant that a large number of young persons who completed 18 years after January 1 had to wait for Special Summary Revision of the next year for enrolment and were not able to participate in elections held in the intervening period.
The EC has also made the registration forms more user friendly and simpler. The newly-modified forms will come into force on August 1. All applications (claims and objections), in old forms, received before August 1 will be processed and disposed of and in such cases, there is no need to file application in new forms, the EC said.