Central observers in UP ahead of electrol roll publication

Lucknow, Jan 7 (UNI) The Election Commission has decided to send 21 central observers to Uttar Pradesh ahead of the final publication of electoral rolls.

While the deadline to publish the final electoral rolls has been set as January 15, the central observers would start reaching the state tomorrow onwards.

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami is reportedly unhappy with the slow pace of preparation of electoral rolls. While the earlier deadline was January 3, it was extended to January 15 at the request of the state government.

Sources in the state government said the central observers would ensure that the process of final publication of electoral rolls continues without any further delay.

This is the second visit of the central observers to the state.They had been to UP in December, 2006.

It is expected that after an upward revision, UP would have a 11 crore strong electorate which would exercise its right to franchise in the coming assembly elections. The process of revising the electoral rolls added 40,000 new voters in the list.

Recently, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had requested the EC to hold assembly elections in the state in February, 2007. But the EC has apparently decided on another date as UP was left out while polls dates were announced for Uttarakhand, Manipur and Punjab.

UNI