Finish making voters' ID cards by August, EC asks officials

Rajkot, June 4 (UNI) In the run-up to the coming Assembly elections in Gujarat, the Election Commission (EC) has directed district officials to complete the process of making election identity cards by August.

Deputy Election Commissoner of India J P Prakash, who was here yesterday to review the election preparations, said the voter identity card is compulsory for voting in the coming assembly elections and the process should be complet in time.

Around 70 per cent electorate have voters cards in the state and the officials have assured the Commission that 95 per cent voters will be covered in the next three months.

Mr Prakash had also instructed all the election officers to physically verify the voters before issuing the ID cards to them to prevent issuance of bogus cards.

With a view to prevent bogus voting, the EC had asked oficials to scrutinise the list of marriage registration both in urban and rural areas and to update the voters' list.

In request transfer case, the Commission said the officials should ensure that while adding the name of the said voter to the new place, they should also delete that voter's name from the old place.

All district election officers should keep one copy of the voters list in their custody, the EC official said.

The state Assembly elections are due before December 26, when the five-year term of the existing assembly will be completed. It is expected that the elections will be held in the first week of December. The EC has already announced its intention to conduct the polls in one day rather than in phases as it happened in Uttar Pradesh, where the elections were concluded recently.

Mr Prakash had told officials that voters would not be allowed to vote without identity cards in the coming assembly elections of Gujarat.

Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat V K Babbar and election officers from Bhavnagar, Surendranagar and Rajkot were present in the meeting, according to a release.

UNI