Mizoram CEO meets church members who opted out of electoral rolls on religious grounds

Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer Garima Gupta on Friday, September 4, met members of the Delete Church community in Champhai town who have opted not to enrol themselves in the electoral roll, citing religious beliefs, officials said.

Gupta visited the community members at Zotlang as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to understand first-hand their reasons for opting out of the electoral process.

During the meeting, the community members told the CEO that they did not want their names included in the electoral roll as they believed that enrolling as voters was incompatible with their religious beliefs, officials said.

A total of 309 people whose names appeared in the previous electoral rolls have refused to enrol during the SIR on religious grounds. The group includes members of the Delete Church community, officials said.

Gupta was accompanied by Joint Chief Electoral Officer Ethel Rothangpuii and election officials from Champhai district.

The Election Commission of India is conducting the SIR to identify and remove ineligible names from electoral rolls while ensuring that all eligible Indian citizens are enrolled.

The revision exercise is nearing completion, with the final electoral roll scheduled to be published on September 7.

Meanwhile, District Election Officers across Mizoram held meetings on Friday to review the implementation of the SIR and preparedness for publication of the final electoral roll. Representatives of political parties and major civil society groups also attended the meetings.

According to the draft electoral roll published on July 4, Mizoram had 8,28,906 electors across its 11 districts, including 4,29,881 women voters.

Election officials said 46,163 enumeration forms, or 5.28 per cent of the total, remained uncollected.

Of these, 21,295 electors, or 2.43 per cent, were reported to have died; 13,978, or 1.60 per cent, had permanently shifted, possibly to other States or countries; 8,333, or 0.95 per cent, could not be traced despite repeated visits; and 2,248, or 0.26 per cent, were already enrolled elsewhere.