Shillong, July 3: The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) has demanded for strict verification during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to prevent indigenous tribals from being excluded from the electoral rolls.
Expressing concern over provisions of SIR, KHNAM working president Thomas Passah on Friday said it would write to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in this regard.
Pointing out that SIR is based on 2005 electoral roll, he said leaving out any genuine resident of Meghalaya, especially an indigenous tribal, would be “very wrong”, he added.
Passah flagged reports of enumeration forms being handed to politicians.
“We have seen reports that the enumeration form is being given to a politician, which means the politician or a political party might use it for its political benefit, and we have areas that are very complicated,” he said.
Referring to 18-West Shillong, he said the constituency reflects a demographic shift.
“18-West Shillong constituency is an area where the indigenous tribes are minority voters, and how did they become a minority? It is very surprising,” Passah said.
“If you go back in time, of course, the indigenous tribes were the majority residents of that area, but slowly, the indigenous tribes have become a minority in the electoral process,” he said.
“So we are very fearful that maybe the indigenous tribes will be left out of the SIR, and if that happens, it will be a big blow to the governance system or political picture in the state of Meghalaya,” he added.
The KHNAM leader also demanded action against electors holding multiple voter IDs.
“With respect to the electors who are not indigenous tribes, it is proven and it is known — if not on document — that most of these voters who are not from the state have another EPIC in their concerned states of origin,” Passah said.
“They go and vote in their states of origin also, and when the election comes in Meghalaya, they also vote here, which means they are having dual EPICs, and dual EPICs are illegal as per guidelines of the Election Commission of India,” he said.
“We request the election department, while carrying out this SIR, to ensure that all these people who already have EPICs in their state of origin have their names deleted from the SIR,” he said.
Passah appealed to residents to verify their inclusion in the rolls.
“We request all citizens, especially indigenous citizens of the state, to please take this SIR process very seriously and please ensure that your name is included in the SIR final roll, because if it is not included, it will bring difficulty to the generations to come when the next SIR is conducted in the state of Meghalaya,” he said.
“Therefore, we will be sending a letter to the CEO to ensure proper verification is done,” he said, adding, “We will be following up this SIR process very closely, and on any new development, we will be writing to the election department in the state of Meghalaya.”
