Sikkim removes 52,551 names from electoral rolls after special revision

Sikkim's electoral rolls have seen a significant reduction following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with 52,551 electors removed from the final list. This marks an 11.16% decrease from the pre-revision count of 4,71,018 voters, according to the Chief Electoral Officer's office.

The final electoral roll now contains 4,18,467 eligible voters. The revision process began with a draft roll published in July, which had 4,33,294 electors. Of these, 3,61,159 individuals (83.35%) were successfully mapped to their own or their parents' electoral details from the previous qualifying roll or the last SIR.

The remaining 72,135 electors (16.65%) could not be mapped through the system. Additionally, the Election Commission's IT system flagged 52,384 mapped electors for having 'Logical Discrepancies'. In total, 1,24,519 electors—comprising both the unmapped and discrepancy categories—were issued notices to appear for hearings to establish their eligibility.

Following these hearings and subsequent verification, 16,485 electors were found ineligible. A further 324 electors were removed through Form 7 submissions, which cover cases of death or change of address. This brought the total deletions during the claims and objections process to 16,809.

However, 1,982 electors were later added back to the roll after their claims were upheld. This adjustment brought the final count from the draft figure of 4,33,294 down to 4,18,467. The final roll comprises 2,12,534 males, 2,05,931 females, and two persons belonging to the third gender.

Individuals aggrieved by an order from the Electoral Registration Officer retain the right to file an appeal against the decision.