The Sikkim Election Department on Saturday published the draft electoral roll under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), completing the enumeration phase and formally initiating the claims and objections process ahead of the publication of the final revised electoral roll on September 6.
Addressing a press conference, Chief Electoral Officer Raj Kumar Yadav said the revision exercise commenced on May 20, with Booth Level Officers (BLOs) completing the house-to-house verification on June 28. The draft electoral roll was subsequently compiled between June 28 and July 5 before being shared with recognised political parties and uploaded on the Chief Electoral Officer’s official website for public access.
According to Yadav, the draft roll reflects around 37,000 deletions, while approximately 4.33 lakh electors have been included. To make voter verification easier, the department has introduced QR codes that enable electors to access their details online using either their EPIC number or their name.
As part of the revision exercise, the department has also established 53 new polling stations, ensuring that the number of voters attached to each polling booth remains below 1,200 to improve administrative efficiency.
The CEO said 48 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and 27 Additional Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) have been appointed to supervise the verification process. In addition, the Election Commission of India has deployed three Roll Observers to oversee the exercise across Sikkim’s six districts.
Responding to concerns over the large number of notices issued during the revision, Yadav said between 88,000 and 90,000 notices had been served. He explained that nearly 38,000 notices were issued to individuals whose names did not appear in the baseline 2002 electoral roll, while around 50,000 notices related to discrepancies such as mismatched names or surnames.
He clarified that the issuance of a notice does not automatically result in the deletion of a person’s name from the electoral roll. Instead, it gives electors an opportunity to establish their eligibility by submitting valid supporting documents before the designated ERO or AERO during the hearing process.
The Chief Electoral Officer also appealed to eligible voters whose names may have been omitted from the draft roll to submit Form 6 along with the required documents through their respective Booth Level Officers to seek inclusion.
To facilitate the verification process, the Election Department will organise special camps at polling stations on July 11, 12, 25 and 26. During these camps, BLOs will receive applications for the inclusion, correction, transposition and deletion of names in the electoral roll.
The department has notified 11 categories of acceptable documents for verification and urged all eligible voters to carefully examine their entries in the draft electoral roll and complete any necessary formalities before the final list is published on September 6.
