New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS) The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday issued the schedule of Special Summary Revision (SSR) of photo electoral rolls, with respect to January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date, making a major change in the format of roll that will be provided to political parties.

In SSR 2027, the parties will be provided soft copy of the Draft and Final Electoral Roll in readable pdf format without photos of the electors.

In the earlier SSR, the parties were provided soft copy of the Draft and Final electoral roll in image pdf format without photos of the electors.

This change introduced by the EC in SSR 2027 was among the major demands of parties and candidates who lost Assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra.

Another major change introduced in SSR 2027 by EC is the fixing of a maximum limit for submitting Form-7 by individual electors whereas no limit was prescribed earlier, the statement said.

In the latest SSR, the EC has also tweaked the provisions related to providing supplements to the recognised political parties during the draft stage.

“Earlier, the addition, deletion and modification supplements were kept only for record and future use. These were not shared with any recognised political parties during draft stage,” an official statement said.

From SSR 2027, the EC has also decided to provide contesting candidates the soft copy of alphabetically arranged Electoral Roll at the time of poll.

“Now, at the time of poll, readable pdf of the alphabetically arranged electoral roll in pendrive or any other electronic storage device can be provided to the contesting candidates by the office of Returning Officer/District Election Officer, on demand and payment basis,” the statement said.

Earlier, the contesting candidates were provided soft copy of alphabetically arranged Electoral Roll on the last date of nomination in roll in CD/DVDs on payment and demand basis.

The EC also plans weekly sharing of list of claims and objections with political parties.

Now, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) will share the weekly list of claims and objections on weekly basis along with the printed copy of previous week(s), the statement added.

Earlier, the weekly list shared with political parties was incremental in nature.

Apart from these changes, the EC has also decided that from SSR 2027 to set up at district/Assembly constituency level to facilitate enrolment of electors, specially the migrant, vulnerable and marginalised persons. Such a facility was not there earlier.

The statement said that Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) will ensure that special drives, wherever necessary, are launched for facilitation of enrolment of electors.

The special camps also may also be organised for enrolment of people living in night shelters, labour colonies as well as for homeless and marginalised persons and other vulnerable groups.

–IANS

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