Bihar reviews electoral rolls: poor people's right to vote at risk

Just four months before local elections, the Commission has ordered a review of the eligibility of nearly 30 million voters who have registered over the past 20 years. Sr. Dorothy Fernandes tells AsiaNews: ‘The government is afraid of losing and will end up depriving the marginalised, migrants and Muslims who are unable to complete the necessary paperwork of their right to vote.’

Patna (AsiaNews) - The announcement by the Election Commission that it intends to carry out a special intensive review of the electoral rolls, just four months before the Assembly elections, is causing concern in Bihar.

The Commission cites the constitutional obligation to ensure that only genuine citizens are registered as voters. But the new rules require proof of registration that many are unable to provide.

The last intensive review in Bihar was carried out in 2003. Voters whose names appear on the electoral rolls from that year are not required to do anything.

But those who registered as voters in subsequent years will now have to provide proof of their date and place of birth and their parents' documents, unless they were already registered on the 2003 rolls. Bihar currently has 78.9 million voters, of whom about 29.3 million registered after 2003.

The Election Commission argues that the electoral rolls have undergone significant changes over the past 20 years due to large-scale additions and deletions. Rapid urbanisation and frequent migration for education, livelihood and other reasons have become a constant trend.

Some voters, according to the Election Commission, register in one place and then move elsewhere, registering a second time without their names being removed from the original lists.

In all this, however, it is the poor who are most at risk of losing their right to vote. Sr. Dorothy Fernandes, a nun of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a social activist who has been working with marginalised communities in Patna since 1997, comments to AsiaNews: "The real reason for this revision is the central government's fear of not winning the elections in Bihar.

In effect, it will deprive a large number of poor people and minorities of their right to vote. The literacy rate in Bihar is very low and the time available is very limited: it is almost impossible for people to produce the documents required by the Electoral Commission to register as voters. There is a risk that the poor, migrants and Muslims will be deprived of their right to vote, as voters will have to prove their citizenship."

‘The Election Commission has listed 11 documents in its guidelines for revision,’ explains Sr. Fernandes. ‘One of these is the birth certificate, while the other ten serve the same purpose but a large number of people do not have them. It is interesting to note that Aadhaar (the national digital identity system, ed.) is not on the list, even though many people have it.’

‘Civil society groups,’ concludes the nun from Patna, ‘have organised a large one-day protest to oppose this undemocratic and unconstitutional decision to deny the right to vote. Today it is Bihar, tomorrow it could be other states: this is a serious matter. Indian citizens must protect their constitutional guarantees in this wonderful country and their right to vote.’

• India
• Bihar
• elections
• BJP
• poor
• Fernandes