A new law amendment permits young people above 17 years of age to apply in advance for enrollment on the voters' list, but they will be registered as voters only when they turn 18, Sanjay Kaul, Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala), has said.
The draft electoral roll will be published on November 9, after which eligible citizens can apply for enrollment.
Till now, citizens were eligible to register on the voters' list if they turned 18 on or before January 1, which was set as the qualifying date in a given year. But from now on, there will be four chances in a year to enroll as a voter due to an amendment made to Section 14(b) of the Representation of the People Act. The four qualifying dates are: January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1. There will be an annual summary revision of the electoral roll with January 1 as the qualifying date.
For the current round of annual revision of electoral roll, citizens who will be turning 18 years on April 1, July 1, and October 1, 2023 are permitted to apply in advance after the draft electoral roll is published on November 9 this year. Earlier, people who turned 18 after the qualifying date of January 1 had to wait till the next January 1 to register as a voter. This delay can be avoided now, Mr. Kaul said.
The annual summary revision of the electoral roll will be conducted every year with reference to January 1 as the qualifying date.
For the 2023 revision, the integrated draft electoral roll will be published on November 9, 2022, after which eligible citizens can apply for enrollment. Claims and objections can be filed from that date up to December 8, 2022. The claims and objections will be disposed by December 26, 2022. The final electoral roll will be published on January 5, 2023.
The Centre had, through the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, has enabled the linking of Aadhaar with the voters' ID card, introduced multiple qualifying dates for enrollment, and a gender-neutral provision for service and special electors.
