AP voter’s final list: 22 lakh newly enrolled, more than 5 lakh first-timers

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh has a total of 4,08,07,256 voters in a total of 175 Assembly constituencies, as per the final voters’ list released by state chief electoral officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena on Monday for the Andhra Pradesh elections 2024.

Among the total number of voters, 2,07,37,065 are females 2,00,09,275 are males and 3,482 are transgender persons.

As a result of widespread publicity given by the Election Commission of India (ECI) calling for fresh enrolments, 22,38,952 new voters were added during the Special Summary Revision (SSR) 2024. Some voters, especially in the category of 18-19 years age bracket, are yet to be added as per the population statistics. The process of addition of such voters will continue in a campaign mode as part of a continuous updation.

Similarly, acting on some complaints, after a thorough analysis of the voters’ list was done through the Birth and Death Register and House to House survey, 16,52,422 deletions were done during SSR.

First-time voters

In the draft electoral roll published on January 27, 2023, the first-time electors in the 18-19 years age group were 2,88,155. The current number is at 8,13,544, an increase of 5,25,389 electors over the draft roll.

Further, the number of houses with more than 10 electors was reduced to 74,549 from 1,57,939 mentioned in the draft publication and as of now 98 per cent of all such cases have been corrected. The remaining could not be corrected due to technical reasons. For example, if any entry required more than one correction, the system will accept only one during the SSR period and for other reasons.

Voting complaints by political parties

Out of the 14,48,516 names received under complaints made by all the political parties, 5,64,497 have been found warranted and deleted from the electoral roll.

Complaints have been received on the issue related to the bulk filing of forms from certain constituencies. In this respect, 70 FIRs have been filed against the persons involved in filing false form-7 applications against eligible voters under relevant sections of the IPC, RP Act & IT Act.

Weekly meetings to continue

To ensure complete transparency, the district election officers/electoral registration officers will continue to have weekly meetings with the political parties till the time of elections and supply the details of forms/notices filed and additions and deletions made.

Vote from home

Senior citizens (above 80 years of age), persons with disability flagged in the electoral roll and persons suspected to have Covid-19 or affected by it will get the opportunity to vote from home in the upcoming general election in 2024.

Currently, there are 5,76,791 electors of 80 years and above and 4,87,594 electors marked as PwD in the electoral rolls. They will be provided voting by postal ballot on the application in form-12D to the returning officer of the constituency. The delivery and collection of postal ballots from such voters will be done by home visits by the polling teams specially formed for this purpose.

Special cell for objections by political parties

A special cell is being established from January 23 in the CEO's office to deal with the objections of political parties in case they find any ineligible person on the electoral roll published on January 22.

The political parties were asked to first file the objections online as per the Representation of People Act, 1950 and Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and then send the list to the special cell (objection on e-Roll) headed by the Additional CEO Harendhira Prasad MN, IAS, so that the CEO office can supervise timely disposal of such objections.

In case voters don’t find the name, they can still file the form-6 for inclusion. The ECI shall ensure that all eligible voters will have the opportunity to enrol and that all new applications will be expeditiously disposed of before the election.

According to the CEO, the copies of final electoral rolls will be supplied to the district units of recognised national and state political parties by the DEOs/EROs.

The same data will be available on the Andhra Pradesh chief electoral officer’s website.